Investigation of mechanical performance of prestressed steel arch in tunnel

In the traditional tunneling method, the steel arch are often adopted to support surrounding rock to ensure the structural stability. If the steel arch is prestressed in time, tunnel support can effectively prevent the development of rock crack, thereby increasing the overall strength of tunnel support and suppress the deformation of the surrounding rock. Based on the mechanical model of steel arch established in this paper, the stress distribution of steel arch is investigated via the numerical simulation method, and the impact on surrounding rock is also analyzed. Through a field test, the rules of the arch strain distribution are observed and discussed. The results show that the prestressed steel arch structure can provide effective support and the stress gradually decreases from stress point to another arch springing. Furthermore, the stress distribution applied by the prestressed steel arch on the surrounding rock is uniform in a certain extent, and it is suggested that this construction method utilizing the prestressed steel arch to squeeze surrounding rock is feasible from a theoretical view.