The law of decelerating advance rates
Abstract
In rock mechanics laboratories, small samples tend to show higher stiffness and strength than larger samples of the same rock. When tunnelling, the larger scale ‘Weibull flaws’ (now faults) become even more important. A short tunnel will have a certain distribution of rock qualities while a longer tunnel will in all likelihood add to both the centre and tails of the statistical distribution. Neither extreme (‘exceptionally poor’ nor ‘exceptionally good’) are desirable in a TBM project.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Tunneling and Rock Mechanics
Rock Mechanics and Modeling
Geotechnical Engineering and Analysis
Publication details
- Journal / source
- CRC Press eBooks
- Pages
- 51–55
- Publication date
- 19 January 2026
- Language
- EN
- Document type
- Book chapter