Accurately determining the mechanical parameters of surrounding rock in tunnel design and construction presents a significant challenge due to the complexity of the environment. This study proposes a novel approach for inverting these parameters using an advanced optimization method, the Improved Grey Wolf Optimization (IGWO), integrated with a BP neural network (IGWO-BP). Key enhancements such as cubic chaotic mapping, refraction backward learning, nonlinear convergence factors, and updated position formulas were applied to improve the algorithm’s search efficiency. By optimizing the neural network’s weights and biases, a precise relationship between rock mechanics and displacement was established. The method was validated through a case study of the Lianhua Tunnel (YK37 + 330 section), utilizing field data of crown settlement and peripheral displacement. The approach accurately predicted mechanical parameters, with relative errors below 5.02% for crown settlement and 4.15% for peripheral displacement. These results demonstrate the reliability and practical applicability of the proposed technique for tunnel engineering.

To analyze the rheological and mechanical properties as well as the vibration-mechanical forbidden zone effect of row pile foundations, this paper employs time-dependent modulus to examine the rheological mechanics of soil. Drawing from viscoelastic theory, we derive the expression of deformation modulus in the frequency domain to analyze the frequency dependence of the shear modulus of rheological soils. We construct a continuous medium dynamics model of the pile-soil periodic structure, taking into account soil rheology, and derive the dispersion equation of shear waves in the periodic structure using the multiple scattering method. The band gap characteristics and parameters that influence the law of shear waves in rheological soil-row pile foundations are studied through the analysis of arithmetic cases. The results show that under the loading condition, the zero-frequency shear modulus of soil is larger than the initial modulus value, and the real part of the shear modulus decreases monotonically with the increase of frequency and finally converges to the initial modulus value; under the unloading condition, the zero-frequency shear modulus of soil is smaller than the initial modulus value, and the real part of the shear modulus increases monotonically with the increase of frequency and finally converges to the initial modulus value; the larger the relaxation time of soil, the faster the convergence rate; the imaginary part of the shear modulus of soil The imaginary part of the soil shear modulus is positive under loading condition and negative under unloading condition, the value of the imaginary part increases and then decreases with increasing frequency and finally converges to 0. The imaginary part reaches the peak at the critical frequency, the larger the relaxation time the smaller the critical frequency, and the peak of the imaginary part is independent of the relaxation time. This study analyzed the dispersion curve of shear waves in a pile-soil periodic structure and found that increasing low-frequency shear wave velocity in rheological soil pile foundation shifts the band gap position to a higher frequency band, resulting in a smaller band gap width than in linear elastic soil. The relaxation time of soil affects the frequency position and width of the band gap, with larger relaxation times resulting in higher frequency positions and smaller widths. Additionally, soil rheology widens the forbidden vibration band gap of the pile periodic structure when the filling rate of the pile foundation is larger.

CU test and CD test were performed to capture the stress-strain characteristics of the clay in Dongting Lake area, China. Since the classical constitutive model cannot ideally describe the strain hardening behavior of the clay, an improved constitutive model that involved three damage factors was proposed. The damage first factor , which represents elemental volume strength , was fitted by the Weibull function. The second and third damage factors and , which represent the porosity ratio and the drainage rate respectively, were fitted by Harris function. The CD test damage model is constructed by , , and . In the CU test, the porosity ratio is a constant value, and the drainage volume is 0, so that is constant value and is 0. Therefore, the CU test damage model of the clay was constructed using the damage first factor . In the end, the accuracy of the proposed CU/CD damage constitutive models of the clay was validated with the experimental results. It is found that the results fitted by the proposed methodology are in good agreement with the experimental results.