Tutorial 24 Tunnel Lining Design

Tunnel Lining Design 24-1
Tunnel Lining Design

In this tutorial, RS2 is used to design a reinforced concrete tunnel liner.
The complete model can be found in the Tutorial 24 Tunnel Lining

Design.fez file. All tutorial files installed with RS2 9.0 can be accessed
by selecting File > Recent Folders > Tutorials Folder from the RS2 main
menu.
Topics covered
 Reinforced concrete liners
 3D tunnel simulation
 Distributed loads – field stress vector option
 Support capacity curves
 GSI calculator
RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

Problem
A circular tunnel of radius 4m is to be constructed in Schist at a depth of

550m. The in-situ stress field has been measured with the major in-plane
principal stress equal to 30 MPa, the minor in-plane principal stress
equal to 15 MPa and the out-of-plane stress equal to 25 MPa. The major
principal stress is horizontal and the minor principal stress is vertical.
The strength of the Schist can be represented by the Generalized Hoek-
Brown failure criterion with the uniaxial compressive strength of the
intact rock equal to 50 MPa, the GSI equal to 50 and mi equal to 10. To
compute the rock mass deformation modulus, the modulus ratio (MR) is
assumed to be 400. The support is to be installed 2m from the tunnel face.
The goal of this tutorial is to design a reinforced concrete lining with a

factor of safety greater than 1.4.
To design a support system, the following three steps must be performed:
1. Determine the amount of tunnel wall deformation prior to

support installation. As a tunnel is excavated, there is a certain
amount of deformation, usually 35-45% of the final tunnel wall
deformation, before the support can be installed. Determining
this deformation can be done using either a) observed field values,
or b) numerically from 3D finite-element models or axisymmetric
finite-element models, or c) by using empirical relationships such
as those proposed by Panet or Vlachopoulos and Diederichs.
2. Using either the internal pressure reduction method, or the

modulus reduction method (see tutorial 18), determine the
internal pressure or modulus that yields the amount of tunnel
wall deformation at the point of and prior to support installation.
This is the value determined in step 1.
3. Build a model that relaxes the boundary to the calculated amount

in step 2 using either an internal pressure or modulus. Add the
support and determine whether a) the tunnel is stable, b) the
tunnel wall deformation meets the specified requirements, and c)
the tunnel lining meets certain factor of safety requirements. If
any of these conditions are not met, choose a different support
system and run the analysis again.
Model
The first step is to determine the amount of tunnel wall deformation prior
to support installation. For this tutorial, we’ll use the relationship
proposed by Vlachopoulos and Diederichs. The Vlachopoulos and
Diederichs method is documented in Appendix 1 of the Kersten Lecture
by Hoek, Carranza-Torres, Diederichs and Corkum. The paper is in the
Hoek’s published papers area on the Rocscience website:

http://www.rocscience.com/hoek/references/Published-Papers.htm
This method requires that we build a model of the tunnel and determine
a) the deformation far from the tunnel face using a simple plane strain
analysis, and b) for the same model determine the plastic zone radius.
In this tutorial we’ll start by building a single model that also combines
step 2 with step 1. We’ll build a plane strain model that relaxes an
internal pressure on the tunnel boundary from a value equal to the
applied in-situ stress to zero. The final stage, with zero internal pressure,
will be used to determine the amount of deformation prior to support
installation (step 1). The factoring of the applied internal pressure over a
number of stages will be used to determine the pressure that yields the
amount of tunnel wall deformation at the point of support installation
(step 2).
Start the RS2 Model program.
Project Settings
Open the Project Settings dialog from the Analysis menu and make
sure the General tab is selected. Define the units as being “Metric, stress
as MPa”.
Select the Stages tab. Change the number of stages to 10 (see following
figure). Close the dialog by clicking OK.

Geometry
Now enter the circular tunnel.
Select: Boundaries  Add Excavation
1. Right-click the mouse and select the Circle option from the popup
menu. You will see the following dialog.
2. Select the Center and radius option, enter Radius = 4 and enter
Number of Segments = 96 and select OK.
3. You will be prompted to enter the circle center. Enter 0,0 in the
prompt line, and the circular excavation will be created.

Select Zoom All (or press the F2 function key) to zoom the excavation to
the center of the view.
Now we will create the external boundary. In RS2, the external boundary
may be automatically generated, or user-defined. We will use one of the
‘automatic’ options.
Select: Boundaries  Add External
You will see the Create External Boundary dialog. We will use the
settings of Boundary Type = Box and Expansion Factor = 5. Select OK,
and the external boundary will be automatically created.
The boundaries for this model have now been entered.
Mesh
Add the finite element mesh by selecting Mesh Setup from the Mesh
menu. In the mesh setup dialog, change the Element Type to 6 Noded
Triangles.
Click the Discretize button and then the Mesh button. Click OK to close
the dialog. The mesh will look like this:

Boundary Conditions
For this tutorial, no boundary conditions need to be specified by the user.
The default boundary condition will therefore be in effect, which is a fixed
(i.e. zero displacement) condition for the external boundary.
Field Stress
Field Stress determines the initial in-situ stress conditions, prior to
excavation. As described earlier in this tutorial, the in-situ stress field
has been measured with the major in-plane principal stress equal to 30
MPa, the minor in-plane principal stress equal to 15 MPa and the out-of-
plane stress equal to 25 MPa. The major principal stress is horizontal and
the minor principal stress is vertical.
Select: Loading  Field Stress
Enter Sigma 1 = 30, Sigma 3 = 15, Sigma Z = 25, Angle = 0 and select OK.

Materials
Go to the Properties menu and select Define Materials.
For Material 1, change the Failure Criterion to Generalized Hoek-Brown

and the Material Type to Plastic. Now define the strength parameters
and the Young’s Modulus using the GSI calculator. Press the GSI
calculator button (see below).
In the GSI calculator dialog, set the uniaxal compressive strength of the
intact rock equal to 50 MPa, the GSI equal to 50 and mi equal to 10. To
compute the rock mass deformation modulus, set the modulus ratio (MR)
to 400. The dialog should look like:

Press the OK button. The material properties dialog should now be

updated with the new strength and modulus values.
Click OK to close the dialog.
Since you entered properties with the first (Material 1) tab selected, you
do not have to Assign these properties to the model. RS2 automatically
assigns the Material 1 properties for you.

Excavation
The tunnel is to be excavated in the first stage so click on the Stage 1 tab
at the bottom of the screen. Simply place the mouse pointer inside the
excavation and right-click the mouse. From the menu that pops up, select
the Assign Material > Excavate option.
The material inside the excavation should now be removed.
Adding an Internal Pressure to the Excavation

Now let’s add a uniform distributed load to the tunnel in stage 1. The
magnitude and direction of the load will be equal and opposite to the in-
situ stresses thus forming a balance between the stresses in the rock and
the pressure inside the tunnel. Since the pressure is equal and opposite to
the in-situ stress, no deformation should occur. However, in stage 2 and
after, we will factor the load and gradually reduce the magnitude of the
pressure. As a result, tunnel deformation will increase as the pressure is
lowered to zero.
Select: Loading  Distributed Loads  Add Uniform Load

In the Add Distributed Load dialog, select the Field stress vector
orientation option. Select the Stage Load checkbox, and select the Stage
Factors button.
In the Stage Factors dialog enter the factors shown in the following
image.
Factor = 1 means the magnitude will be the same as the field stress while
a Factor = 0 means no load will be applied at that stage. Other values of
Factor can be used to increase or decrease the magnitude of a load at any
stage of a model.
Select OK in both dialogs. You will now be asked to pick the boundary
segments on which the load will be applied.
Select the excavation line segments to be loaded:
Select boundary segments [enter=done,esc=cancel] : use the

mouse to draw a selection window around the entire excavation.
After the excavation segments are selected, right-click and
select Done Selection, or press Enter.
Note: to draw a selection window, simply pick one of the window corners
by moving the mouse cursor to a point, and press AND HOLD DOWN the
left mouse button. Now move the cursor while still holding down the left
mouse button, you should see a window forming. Now move the mouse
cursor to the opposite corner of the window and release the left mouse
button when done.
Click the Zoom Excavation button on the toolbar. You should see the
following:

Now click through the stage tabs. You should see the internal pressure
reduce as the stage increases.
NOTE: a useful feature of the Field stress vector loading option is that
any change to the field stress through the field stress dialog will also
automatically update the internal pressure inside the tunnel.
We are now ready to run the analysis.
Compute
Before you analyze your model, let’s save this as a new file called
InternalPressureReduction.fez
Select: File  Save
Save the file as InternalPressureReduction.fez.
Select: Analysis  Compute
The RS2 Compute engine will proceed in running the analysis. When
completed, you will be ready to view the results in Interpret.
Interpret
From Model, switch to the Interpret program.
Select: Analysis  Interpret

After you select the Interpret option, the Interpret program starts and
reads the results of the analysis. You will see the maximum stress, sigma
1 for Stage 1. Notice that there is no variation of stress and that the
stress (30 MPa) is equal to the major in-situ field stress. This means that
the internal pressure is equal and opposite to the field stress and the
model is behaving as if the tunnel did not exist.
Now click the Zoom Excavation button on the toolbar.
Change the contours to plot Total Displacement. You can see that there is
essentially no displacement in the first stage.
Now click through the stages. You’ll see an increase in deformation

around the tunnel as the internal pressure is reduced.
Step 1 – Computing tunnel deformation before support

installation using the Vlachopoulos and Diederichs
method
To compute the tunnel deformation at the point of support installation,
we’ll use the empirical relationship developed by Vlachopoulos and
Diederichs. To use the Vlachopoulos and Diederichs method, you need
two pieces of information from the finite-element analysis. You need to
know a) the maximum tunnel wall displacement far from the tunnel face,
and b) the radius of the plastic zone far from the tunnel face.
Both of these values can be computed from a plane strain analysis with
zero internal pressure inside the excavation. In the model we just built,
the results from stage 10 are used since there is zero internal pressure in
this stage.

Switch to the last stage, stage 10. Look in the lower left corner of the
program window on the status bar. You’ll see that the maximum
displacement for this stage is approximately 0.065m. This is the value of
maximum wall displacement far from the tunnel face. The location of this
displacement is in the roof and floor of the excavation. The location of this
displacement is important since any comparisons of displacement for
various internal pressures must be made at the same location.
To determine the radius of the plastic zone, first turn on the display of
yielded elements using the Display Yielded Elements toolbar button.
You’ll see a number of crosses representing elements in the finite element
analysis that have failed. Zoom Out so that the entire extent of failed
points is visible (see below).
The extent of this failed zone represents the extent of the plastic zone
around the tunnel. To determine the radius of the plastic zone, you can
use either the measuring tool or the dimensioning tool to measure the
distance from the center of the tunnel to the perimeter of the
yielded/plastic zone. In this tutorial we’ll use the measuring tool.
Select: Tools  Add Tool  Measure
Pick the location to measure from [esc=quit]: 0,0

Pick the location to measure to [esc=quit]: use the mouse to
extend the measuring line vertically until you get to the edge
of the yield zone, press the left mouse button.

As seen above, the radius of the plastic zone is approximately 9.7m.
Computing displacement prior to support installation using the Vlachopoulos

and Diederichs Method
The following plot was created using the Vlachopoulos and Diederichs
equations. The equations can be found in the Kersten Lecture, appendix
1. Using this plot, you can easily estimate the amount of closure prior to
support installation if you know the plastic radius and displacement far
from the tunnel face.

For our problem, Rp=9.5m, Rt=4m, X=2m, and umax=0.065m. The Distance
from tunnel face/tunnel radius = 2/4 = 0.5. The Plastic zone radius/tunnel
radius = 9.5/4 = 2.4. From the above plot this gives Closure/max closure
approximately equal to 0.44. Therefore the closure equals (0.44)*(0.065) =
0.028m.
As computed above, the tunnel roof displaces 0.028m before the support
is installed.

Step 2 - Determining the internal pressure factor

The next step is to determine the internal pressure that yields a
displacement of 0.028m in the roof of the tunnel. It is important to
maintain the same location as is used to determine umax, since the
location of maximum displacement can change depending on the
magnitude of the internal pressure. This can be seen in this model as
larger internal pressures produce larger displacement in the sidewall
while smaller internal pressures produce larger displacements in the roof
and floor.
To determine the internal pressure that yields a 0.028m roof

displacement, we’ll plot the displacement versus stage for a point on the
roof of the excavation.
Make sure you have Total Displacement selected as the data type.
Graphing Displacement in the Roof of the Excavation
To create the graph:
Select: Graph  Graph Single Point vs. Stage
Use drop down menu to select Graph Single Point vs. Stage
1. When asked to enter a vertex, type in the value 0,4 for the
location and press Enter. This is a point on the roof of the
excavation.
2. You will see the Graph Query Data dialog.

3. Press the Plot button. The following figure shows the plot
generated by the program. This is a plot of displacement versus
stage for a point in the roof of the tunnel.
Right-click in the plot and choose the Sampler option. Move the sampler
by moving the mouse with the left mouse button. Move the sampler until
the displacement value on the right side of the plot is equal to 0.028m.
From this plot, you can see that in stage 5, the wall displacement in the
roof of the tunnel is 0.028m. This represents an internal pressure factor
of 0.1 as was defined in the modeler for the field stress vector distributed
load.

Creating a convergence confinement graph in Excel
Often you want to create a convergence confinement graph which plots

displacement versus internal pressure. This is easily done by exporting
the above graph to Microsoft Excel™. This requires that you have Excel
installed on your computer.
Right-click in the Graph you just created and choose the Plot in Excel
option.
Excel will launch with a plot of stage number versus displacement. You
can easily modify the plot to change the stage number data to the
internal pressure factor. A sample of the Excel file for this example is
included in the Tutorials folder with the RS2 data files.
The following image shows the convergence-confinement plot in Excel for

this example. You can see by this plot that an internal pressure factor of
0.1 yields the tunnel wall displacement computed above for the point of
support installation (0.028m).
We have now completed steps 1 and 2 as defined in the Problem section

at the beginning of this tutorial. It is now time to actually design our
support system.
From Interpret, switch back to the RS2 Model program by pressing the
Model button on the toolbar.

Model
You should now be in the RS2 Model program with the 10 stage model
you created above loaded into the program.
We will use this file and modify it to do the support design.
Project Settings
Open the Project Settings dialog from the Analysis menu and select
the Stages Tab. Change the name of stage 1 to Initial Stage. Change the
name of Stage 5 to Tunnel Relaxation. Change the name of Stage 10 to
Support Installed. The dialog should look like this:
Now delete all other stages except these three stages (i.e. stages
2,3,4,6,7,8,9). Note, you can select multiple stages by scrolling down the
number column with the left mouse button depressed. Use the Delete
Stages button to delete the stages. After deleting these stages, the dialog
should look like:

We chose stage 5 from the old model because it represents the stage in
which the internal pressure in the tunnel yields the necessary
deformation before we install the support. Close the dialog by clicking
OK.
Make sure the Stage 1 tab is selected. Click the Zoom Excavation button
on the toolbar.
You should see the following:
Click through the stages. Stage 2, the tunnel relaxation stage, should
look like:

Note: you can use the LoadingDistributed LoadsEdit Distributed

Load option to select any of the loads on the boundary to verify that the
stage factor is 0.1 for Stage 2.
Stage 3, the Support Installed stage should have no load on the boundary.
Setting the Reinforced Concrete Liner Properties

Now define the liner properties. The properties we enter will correspond
to a 100 mm thick layer of concrete reinforced with W100X19.3 I-beams
spaced at 2 meter intervals along the tunnel axis.
Select: Properties  Define Liners
1. Change the Name of the liner to Tunnel Liner
2. Change the Liner Type to Reinforced Concrete
3. Click on the Common Types button. You will see the

Reinforcement database dialog shown below. For the
Reinforcement, we will select an I-beam from a list of standard
reinforcement types.
4. In the Reinforcement database dialog, select the W100 x 19.3 I-

beam. Click OK, and the I-beam reinforcement properties will be
automatically loaded into the Define Liner Properties dialog.
5. In the Define Liner Properties dialog, for the Reinforcement,

enter a spacing of 2m.

6. Enter the properties for the concrete. Thickness=0.1m,

Modulus=25000MPa, Poisson Ratio=0.15, Compressive
Strength=45MPa, Tensile Strength=5MPa. The liner properties
dialog should look like:
7. Press OK to save your input and exit the dialog.
Adding a Reinforced Concrete Liner to the Tunnel

We will now line the tunnel with the liner defined above. First make sure
that Stage 3, the Support Installed stage, is selected.
Select: Support  Add Liner
1. You will see the Add Liner dialog. Make sure it looks like the
following image. Select OK.

2. Click and hold the left mouse button, and drag a selection window
which encloses the entire excavation. Release the left mouse
button. Notice that all excavation line segments are selected.
3. Right-click the mouse and select Done Selection, or just press the
Enter key. The entire tunnel will now be lined, as indicated by
the thick blue line segments around the excavation boundary (see
below).
Click through the stages. Notice how the color of the liner changes from
light blue in stages 1 and 2 to dark blue in stage 3. This indicates that the
liner is being installed in stage 3.
We are now ready to run the analysis.
Compute
LinerDesign.fez. (Make sure you select Save As and not Save, or you
will overwrite the internal pressure reduction file).
Select: File  Save As
Save the file as LinerDesign.fez.

Interpret
If any other files are loaded into the Interpret program (i.e. the
InternalPressureReduction.fez file), close them. Click on the tab at the
bottom of the program window associated with the file and use the
FileClose menu option to close the file.
Make sure the Stage 3 tab is selected. Click the Zoom Excavation button
on the toolbar.
Support Capacity Diagrams

Support capacity diagrams give the engineer a method for determining
the factor of safety of a reinforced concrete liner. For a given factor of
safety, capacity envelopes are plotted in axial force versus moment space
and axial force versus shear force space. Values of axial force, moment
and shear force for the liner are then compared to the capacity envelopes.
If the computed liner values fall inside an envelope, they have a factor of
safety greater than the envelope value. So if all the computed liner values
fall inside the design factor of safety capacity envelope, the factor of
safety of the liner exceeds the design factor of safety.
Select: Graph  Support Capacity Plots
The Support Capacity Plot dialog allows you to choose the support
element (i.e. liner type), the number of envelopes, and the stages from
which the liner data is taken.
Use the spin control to increase the number of envelopes to 3. The dialog
should look like:

Press OK.
The following plot is generated. The dark red lines represent the capacity
envelopes for the 3 factors of safety (1, 1.2, 1.4). Notice the number of
liner data points that fall outside the 1.4 design factor of safety envelope,
meaning they have a factor of safety less than 1.4. This occurs for both
the capacity diagrams for the concrete and the capacity diagrams for the
I-beam. In fact, a number of points fall outside the factor of safety=1.0
envelope. This liner would most likely experience cracking and crushing
if used in this tunnel. Later, we’ll have to improve on this design.

Let’s investigate some of the things you can do with the support capacity
envelopes.
Select: Window  Tile Vertically
The window should look like:

Make sure the Support Capacity Plot view is selected, not the contour
view of the tunnel. If you are interested in just the concrete moment
capacity plot, you can expand this plot using the following option.
Select: View  Concrete Moment Capacity Plot
The four plots are replaced by a single plot of the moment capacity for the
concrete. Alternatively, you can maximize any single plot interactively by
double-clicking on the plot. Double-clicking on the moment capacity for
the concrete returns you to the four plots. Right-clicking also gives you a
context menu that enables you to choose viewing options.
Make sure you have a single plot of the moment capacity for the concrete.
Your display should look like:
Select: View  Zoom  Zoom Support Capacity Data
The view is zoomed so that the extents of the plot are determined by the
extents of the moment and axial force data for the concrete.
Select: View  Zoom  Zoom All
The plot is returned to the default extents. If you have a mouse wheel,
you can use it to zoom in and out on the data. Holding down the mouse
wheel and moving the mouse results in panning of the plot. There are a
number of options for manipulating the plot. Return to the default
extents.
Select: View  Zoom  Zoom All
Try right-clicking in the plot view and choosing the Chart Properties
option.

A dialog containing a number of options for changing the format of the

plots is displayed. Close this dialog.
Now use the mouse to click on one of the red liner data points. The data
point is highlighted in the support capacity plot view and the liner
associated with this data is highlighted in the main contour view. This is
shown in the following figure.
Right-click in the support capacity plot view and select the Filter Data
by FS option. The following dialog is displayed. Change the Factor of
safety used for filtering to Concrete moment. Change the Maximum
value to 1 and turn on the Highlight filtered liners. What this does is plot
all the data points with factor of safety between 0 and 1 for the concrete
moment, and show the associated liner elements in the contour view.

Press the OK button after making these changes. In the following image,
only the liner elements with factor of safety between 0 and 1 for the
concrete are displayed. The liner elements associated with these data
points are highlighted on the contour view by drawing a grey circle
around each element. As you can see, the areas of minimum factor of
safety for the concrete are in the roof and floor of the excavation.
Now let’s go back to the Modeler and pick a better support system for the
tunnel.
From Interpret, switch back to the RS2 Model program:
Select: Analysis  Model

Model – Improving the Support System
Select: Properties  Define Liners
1. Make sure the Tunnel Liner tab is selected. Click on the Common
Types button.
2. In the Reinforcement dialog that is displayed, select the W150 x

18 I-beam. Click OK.
3. Increase the thickness of the concrete to 0.2m. The liner

properties dialog should look like:
4. Press OK to exit the dialog.
We are now ready to re-run the analysis.
Compute
LinerDesign2.fez. (Make sure you select Save As and not Save, or you
will overwrite the LinerDesign.fez file).
Select: File  Save As
Save the file as LinerDesign2.fez.

Interpret
Select: Graph  Support Capacity Plots
Use the spin control to increase the number of envelopes to 3. The dialog
should look like:
Press OK.
The following plot is generated.

Right away you’ll notice that all the data points fall within the factor of
safety =1.4 envelope, on all four plots. This means that the support
system chosen has a factor of safety greater than 1.4 thus achieving the
design factor of safety.
You can also use some of the tools previously demonstrated to filter out
points with a factor of safety less than 1.4. You’ll see that none exist.
This concludes the tutorial; you may now exit the RS2 Interpret and RS2
Model programs.

Tutorial 24 Tunnel Lining Design

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Tutorial 24 Tunnel Lining Design

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Description:

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Tutorial 24 Tunnel Lining Design

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

What steps must be performed to design a support system for an excavated tunnel?

What steps must be performed to design a support system for an excavated tunnel?

What method was used to determine the amount of tunnel wall deformation prior to support installation?

What method was used to determine the amount of tunnel wall deformation prior to support installation?

Tunnel Lining Design 24-1

Tunnel Lining Design

The complete model can be found in the Tutorial 24 Tunnel Lining

 Reinforced concrete liners

 Distributed loads – field stress vector option

 Support capacity curves

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

A circular tunnel of radius 4m is to be constructed in Schist at a depth of

The goal of this tutorial is to design a reinforced concrete lining with a

To design a support system, the following three steps must be performed:

1. Determine the amount of tunnel wall deformation prior to

2. Using either the internal pressure reduction method, or the

3. Build a model that relaxes the boundary to the calculated amount

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

Start the RS2 Model program.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

Select: Boundaries  Add Excavation

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

Select: Boundaries  Add External

The boundaries for this model have now been entered.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

Select: Loading  Field Stress

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

For Material 1, change the Failure Criterion to Generalized Hoek-Brown

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

Press the OK button. The material properties dialog should now be

Click OK to close the dialog.

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

The material inside the excavation should now be removed.

Adding an Internal Pressure to the Excavation

Select: Loading  Distributed Loads  Add Uniform Load

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

Select the excavation line segments to be loaded:

Select boundary segments [enter=done,esc=cancel] : use the

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

We are now ready to run the analysis.

Select: File  Save

Save the file as InternalPressureReduction.fez.

Select: Analysis  Compute

From Model, switch to the Interpret program.

Select: Analysis  Interpret

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

Now click the Zoom Excavation button on the toolbar.

Now click through the stages. You’ll see an increase in deformation

Step 1 – Computing tunnel deformation before support

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

Select: Tools  Add Tool  Measure

Pick the location to measure from [esc=quit]: 0,0

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

As seen above, the radius of the plastic zone is approximately 9.7m.

Computing displacement prior to support installation using the Vlachopoulos

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

RS2 v.9.0 Tutorial Manual

Step 2 - Determining the internal pressure factor

To determine the internal pressure that yields a 0.028m roof