To explore the tendency of rockburst, a similar material ratio was optimised based on white sandstone. Quartz sand, iron powder, gypsum, cement, retarder, and a water‐reducing agent were used as the main materials. The orthogonal test design principle was used to determine the four‐factor and four‐level orthogonal test design with the quartz sand content, iron powder content, gypsum‐cement ratio, and sand particle size as the influencing factors. Uniaxial compression tests and tensile tests were conducted on similar material models. The tensile strength and elastic modulus were analysed, the significance of each influencing factor was investigated, and the test results of the similar materials were fitted. The optimal ratios of the similar materials of white sandstone were found to be quartz sand content of 36%, iron powder content of 1.9%, gypsum‐cement ratio of 1.8 : 1, and sand particle size of 2–4 mm. The physical and mechanical properties of the similar materials were consistent with those of white sandstone. The mechanical properties of the similar materials were compared with those of the original rock. By judging the rockburst propensity and verifying the index, it is concluded that the similar materials can effectively simulate the characteristics of white sandstone, which is an ideal similar material of rockburst, and they all show strong rockburst propensity. The rock specimens with optimal proportions were produced, and the internal energy changes and rockburst mechanisms of the model at different temperatures were discussed. The results show that the rockburst process is closely related to energy, such as thermal energy and elastic strain energy, and the rock failure process can be divided into three main stages: energy accumulation, microcrack formation and propagation, and crack penetration and bursting. It provides an experimental basis for the preparation of rockburst similar materials that are more in line with the actual situation of the project and provides a basis for discussing the energy criterion of rockburst.

When the shale gas reservoir is fractured, stress shadows can cause reorientation of hydraulic fractures and affect the complexity. To reveal the variation of stress shadow with perforation spacing, the numerical model between different perforation spacing was simulated by the extended finite element method (XFEM). The variation of stress shadows was analyzed from the stress of two perforation centers, the fracture path, and the ratio of fracture length to spacing. The simulations showed that the reservoir rock at the two perforation centers is always in a state of compressive stress, and the smaller the perforation spacing, the higher the maximum compressive stress. Moreover, the compressive stress value can directly reflect the size of the stress shadow effect, which changes with the fracture propagation. When the fracture length extends to 2.5 times the perforation spacing, the stress shadow effect is the strongest. In addition, small perforation spacing leads to backward-spreading of hydraulic fractures, and the smaller the perforation spacing, the greater the deflection degree of hydraulic fractures. Additionally, the deflection angle of the fracture decreases with the expansion of the fracture. Furthermore, the perforation spacing has an important influence on the initiation pressure, and the smaller the perforation spacing, the greater the initiation pressure. At the same time, there is also a perforation spacing which minimizes the initiation pressure. However, when the perforation spacing increases to a certain value (the result of this work is about 14 m), the initiation pressure will not change. This study will be useful in guiding the design of programs in simultaneous fracturing.

The accurate prediction and evaluation of stress and displacement fields of surrounding rock is the fundamental premise for the deformation control of soft rock tunnels under high geo-stress condition. However, due to the complicated mechanical characteristics of soft rock with confining pressure influence, the current numerical simulation method usually regards the mechanical parameters of surrounding rock as constant and ignores the variation of these parameters in the simulation process, which leads to results that cannot accurately reflect the mechanical behavior of surrounding rock. Therefore, this paper firstly investigates the effect of confining pressure on deformation and strength parameters for soft rock and proposes corresponding variable models for mechanical parameters with the confining pressure influence. Secondly, a transversal loop discriminant update procedure is proposed and introduced into the iteration calculation process of FLAC^3D, thus forming an improved numerical simulation method. This improved method can integrally consider the mechanical parameter variation of surrounding rock with variable confining pressure and realize the automatic update for such a parameter with its variable stress state. Finally, as an application example, an improved expression of longitudinal deformation profile (LDP) for tunnels considering the confining pressure influence is proposed based on numerous simulation results for a soft rock tunnel obtained by this proposed method.

The mechanism of intermittent water and mud inrush is a difficult problem faced by disaster prevention and safe construction in karst tunnels. Aiming at revealing the mechanism of intermittent water and mud inrush, we developed an integrated testing system for filling medium deposition in karst caves and intermittent water and mud inrush. By conducting a serial of laboratory experiments, we analyzed the sedimentary characteristics of the filling medium in karst caves and the catastrophic process of intermittent water and mud inrush induced by dredging and rainfall under realistic sedimentary conditions. The results show that the filling medium exhibits layered deposition characteristics, which are affected by the water circulation time, the amount of sediments carried by water and the water flow rate. The first inrush incubation time reduces with the water head increases. The critical water head and the disaster incubation time increase with the deposition height increases. Under the same conditions, the first inrush incubation time of gravel type, silt type, and clay type filling medium decrease sequentially. The results can provide a theoretical basis for preventing intermittent water and mud inrush disasters in karst tunnels.