Underground Engineering

Planning, Design, Construction and Operation of the Underground Space

Bai Yun

• Publisher: Academic Press
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9780128127032
• Topic: Technology & Engineering
• Subtopic: Civil Engineering
• Index: Technology & Engineering

Underground Engineering: Planning, Design, Construction and Operation of the Underground Space provides the author's vast experience as both an academic and practitioner. It covers Planning, Design, Construction and the Operation of Underground Structures. Targeted at young professionals, students and researchers new to the field, the book contains examples, illustrations and cases from diverse underground uses, from roads to disposal facilities. Sections cover the history of the field, upcoming challenges, the planning stage of the subsurface use, including financial planning and reliability forecasting, site investigation, instrumentation and modeling, construction techniques and challenges, and more.

Young professionals in this area will benefit from the updated and complete overview of Underground Engineering. Students will find the examples and cases particularly didactic. Richly illustrated, this book is an excellent resource for all involved in the development of the underground space.

• Offers a complete introduction to the area, including planning, design, construction and the operation of underground structures
• Assumes little previous knowledge from readers
• Presents the most recent techniques and future technical trends
• Richly illustrated and packed with examples to help readers understand the fundamentals of the area

Chapter 1

History of Subsurface Development

Abstracts

Subsurface space has been used since the Stone Age in different forms, such as caves, tunnels, and mines. This chapter covers the history of the use of caves, tunnels, and mines, with examples of various famous ancient structures including China’s 1600-year-old Thousand Buddhas grottos and ancient salt mines in South America. Tunnels are then fully explained in terms of types and development stages including water, sewage, railway, road, and metro tunnels. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the future and how subsurface space is set to change society in unprecedented ways.

Keywords

Subsurface development; underground structures; transport tunnel; mines; caves; future underground structures; submerged floating tunnel

Contents

• 1.1 Caves and Grottos 2
  • 1.1.1 Caves as Burial Sites 3
  • 1.1.2 Caves as Temples and Monasteries 4
  • 1.1.3 Caves as Dwellings 4
• 1.2 Ancient Mines 4
• 1.3 Water Tunnels 7
  • 1.3.1 Tunnels to Supply Water 7
  • 1.3.2 Tunnels to Ensure Drainage 8
• 1.4 Underground Power Stations 10
• 1.5 Transportation Tunnels 12
  • 1.5.1 Railway Tunnels 12
  • 1.5.2 Road Tunnels 13
  • 1.5.3 Metro Tunnels for Cities 14
• 1.6 Underground Recreational Facilities 16
• 1.7 Underground Space for the Future 17
  • 1.7.1 Underground Space in Cities 17
  • 1.7.2 Future Tunnels 17
  • 1.7.3 Energy Supply Research 18
  • 1.7.4 Submerged Floating Tunnels 18
  • 1.7.5 Moon Caverns 19
• 1.8 Questions 21
• References 21
• Further Reading 23

Subsurface space is used in a variety of ways in the form of tunnels, mines, shelters, and burial chambers. For four millennia, human beings have dug tunnels and structures, some of which are still in use today and have thus stood the test of time.

The design and construction of subsurface structures have become increasingly more manageable and safer. But the complexity of the techniques used in underground engineering remains a challenge. However, construction methods, skills, and knowledge have evolved over the years, showing the importance of empirical learning in underground engineering. Indeed, developed technology can be refined thanks to long-term experience.

In this first chapter, a brief overview of subsurface structures is given, along with the different uses of subsurface space throughout history in varying geologies, cultures, and climates. This enumeration is not exhaustive and primarily focuses on Chinese examples.

1.1 Caves and Grottos

Over thousands of years, humans have been attached to the underground for many reasons, among others, for basic survival, artistic expression, and religious ceremonies. In the Stone Age, humans lived in caves (as confirmed by discovered cave paintings). More than 12,000 years ago, Stone Age men built, excavated, and extended tunnel networks, of which some parts still exist (Daily Mail Reporter, 2011). In the Chauvet-Pont-D’Are cave in southern France, the evocative paintings and engravings of animal and hunting scenes have been carbon-dated at more than 30,000 years old. Tunnels offer protection from predators.

Since the Stone Age, caves and grottos have been used for different purposes, some natural (Fig. 1.1) and others manmade. Some examples of caves and grottos are discussed here.

Figure 1.1 Nature cave in Shanxi Province, China.

1.1.1 Caves as Burial Sites

In the search for the beginning of underground construction, we begin in Ancient Egypt where proof of such structures still exists and has been well preserved and documented.

Many underground spaces were excavated as integral parts of pyramids or sacred burial sites. The most impressive pyramids are those of Giza, the biggest of the three being the Great Pyramid of Khufu. Fig. 1.2 shows the internal organization of the pyramid where different passages lead to the three known chambers: the lowest, the Queen’s, and the King’s chambers.

Figure 1.2 Great Pyramid of Khufu in Giza, Egypt. Adapted from Science. How Stuff Works. Freudenrich, 2007, http://science.howstuffworks.com/engineering/structural/pyramid2.htm.

Another important example of an underground burial site is in Malta, namely the Hal Saflieni Hypogeum that dates from 2400 BC. It is a large underground temple consisting of a complex series of chambers and tombs (Fig. 1.3). The Hal Saflieni Hypogeum situated beyond the southern tip of Italy is comprised of three levels and reaches a depth of 12 m (Ring, Salkin, & La Boda, 1995).

Figure 1.3 The Hal Saflieni Hypogeum, an underground cemetery (Gorski, 2006).

1.1.2 Caves as Temples and Monasteries

Situated in Dunhuang in Gansu province, the Mogao Caves (also called Thousand Buddhas grottos) are one of the most valuable cultural heritage sites in China, containing exquisite paintings and sculptures (Fig. 1.4). With over 1600 years of history and more than 492 well-preserved Buddhist caves, the site was listed as a World Heritage site in 1987 (Unesco, n.d.). Since Dunhuang is located along the Silk Road, the caves were of great importance in artistic exchanges between China, India, and Central Asia.

Figure 1.4 Outside the Mogao grottos (Cascone, 2014).

1.1.3 Caves as Dwellings

In China since prehistoric times the Loess caves (the Loess Plateau [also called the Huangtu Plateau] is a 640,000 km²-plateau covering much of Shanxi and Shaanxi as well as the northern Henan and eastern Gansu) and caves have traditionally been used as dwellings (Fig. 1.5). At the time caves were a dominant form of rural housing with an estimated 40 million people living in caves at the end of the last century. Cave dwellings are a successful ecological adaptation. They provide shelter, hold heat well, are affordable, and require no maintenance (Yoon, 1990).

Figure 1.5 Loess caves in Zhangshanying, close to Beijing (taQpets, 2013).

1.2 Ancient Mines

Since the beginning of civilization humans have used materials found underground to build tools and ...

Table of contents

• Cover image
• Title page
• Table of Contents
• Copyright
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Brief Introduction
• Chapter 1. History of Subsurface Development
• Chapter 2. Planning the Use of Subsurface Space
• Chapter 3. Design of Underground Structures
• Chapter 4. Underground Construction
• Chapter 5. Project Management
• Chapter 6. Operation Systems in Underground Engineering
• Index