Blasting damage characteristics of surrounding rock around the arch foot of horseshoe tunnel

To address the issues of over-excavation at the tunnel arch foot due to the difficulty of forming the perimeter hole blasting and under-excavation at the tunnel face bottom, the damage characteristics of the surrounding rock caused by perimeter hole blasting at the arch foot of a horseshoe-shaped tunnel were studied through a combination of theoretical calculations and numerical simulations. On the theoretical level, an in-depth analysis of the stress distribution and crack radius in the arch foot area was conducted based on the principles of blasting mechanics, and the theoretical charge length for the perimeter holes at the arch foot was derived. Building on this, a 3D numerical model of the perimeter holes at the arch foot was established through numerical simulation. During the modeling process, the damage evolution in the surrounding rock during blasting was simulated by introducing an appropriate damage model, along with the generation of post-blast damage cloud maps. By comparing the damage cloud maps under different conditions, the relationship between blasting effectiveness and parameters such as free surface shape, charge amount, and void deflection angle was analyzed, further revealing the mechanisms by which these parameters influence the blasting formation results, which were validated through field experiments. The research results indicate that the shape of the free surface significantly affects the extent of surrounding rock damage and the energy utilization efficiency of explosives. A concave free surface results in a smaller damage range compared to a flat free surface, with greater rock confinement, making it difficult for the explosives to effectively fracture the surrounding rock, leading to an energy utilization rate of only 78%. The blasting effectiveness shows a trend of first increasing and then decreasing with the increase in charge amount, with the optimal blasting effectiveness achieved when the linear charge density of the perimeter holes at the arch foot is 0.624. Additionally, by setting voids and adjusting the void deflection angle, the blasting effectiveness of the perimeter holes at the arch foot can be improved. With the optimized blasting parameters, the maximum linear over-excavation at the arch foot was reduced by 53.1%, resulting in a smooth tunnel contour. The research outcomes are engineeringly feasible and provide valuable insights for similar projects.