According to the movement characteristics of the surrounding rock of the gob-side entry retaining by roof cutting (GERRC), the structural evolution mechanism and stability control countermeasures are studied in this paper. Taking the roof cutting and bulking as the core point, the movement process of the surrounding rock of GERRC is divided into five stages: roof cutting, dynamic pressure support, gangue bulking, double arch roadway support, and roadway formation. Combined with mechanical analysis, the roof pressure of the mechanical model of the short-arm beam formed by roof cutting is calculated, and the roof breaking criterion is obtained, which provides a basis for roof control design and reasonable support strength calculation. A structural model of double-arch roadway protection under the action of hydrostatic roof cutting and gangue bulking was established, and the mechanism of roadway formation stability was studied. The gob-side bulking gangue and short-arm beam are formed by roof cutting, and the solid coal seam forms the immediate balance arch, the bulking gangue in goaf, articulated transfer rock beam, and solid coal seam forms the main balance arch. The two together are called double balance arch. With the support of the double-balanced arch on the overlying rock strata, the roadway below is located in the low-stress zone, which ensures the stability of the roadway surrounding rock. Through mechanical analysis and field observation, the law of bulking and deformation and mechanical characteristics of gob-side gangue in the above structural model are analyzed, and the reasonableness of the structural model of the double-arch guard lane is verified through numerical simulation of the cut top into lanes. and the reasonableness of the structural model of double-arch protection in GERRC is verified by using numerical simulation. In this paper, a mechanical double-arch model has been developed that allows us to understand the mechanism of stress transfer of roof cutting roadway from the perspective of a dynamic balance of roadway surrounding rock and overlying rock strata, helping us to specify efficient support countermeasures.

Subsidence deformation of abandoned goafs can induce cracking, distortion and even collapse of surface buildings (structures), and thus, subsidence deformation poses a great threat. Accurate detection of the abandoned goaf location and overburden morphology is an important prerequisite for stability evaluation and scientific management of surface buildings (structures), and effective detection methods are bottlenecks for accurate detection. Taking the abandoned goaf in the Tengzhou section of China’s Mu Shi expressway as an engineering example, step-by-step detection, traditional detection and combination methods are used to determine the location of the underlying abandoned goaf and overburden morphology. First, we conduct disaster investigation on the expressway and surface within the affected area of the abandoned goaf and initially determine the detection area. Then, according to the principle that the detection range can be examined step-by-step from large to small, the high-density resistivity method is used for detection, and the high-resolution seismic method is further selected to analyze the target area. Then, based on the results of the resistivity method, the position of the abandoned goaf is evaluated with the high-resolution seismic method, and the distributions of the overburden subsidence, the water-filled fractured zone and the caving zone (the three belts) are determined. Finally, boreholes are drilled deep into the bottom of the abandoned goaf at specific locations and the distributions of the abandoned goaf and three belts are verified and corrected with drilling data, acoustic detection and borehole TV imaging technology, thereby providing accurate data on abandoned goafs for highway stability evaluation.

The stable surrounding rock is the key to ensuring tunnel availability in weakly cemented strata. In recent years, the joint support scheme of “steel beam + anchor net rope + grouting” was proposed based on numerical analysis, laboratory tests, and field tests, which was efficient in the short term. However, the effect of time and environment on the support structure was neglected. The weakly cemented mudstone was sensitive to water, with disintegration soaking up water and consolidation losing water. In this paper, analogy-based remolded soil puts forward the structural restrengthening of damaged mudstone. It was believed that when the clay content of a rock mass exceeded the critical proportion, the restrengthened structure could be regained under certain conditions of consolidation stress and water content. On the one hand, the residual strength of broken mudstone can be improved; on the other hand, pores and cracks are filled with minerals, restraining further water absorption. The structural strengthening feasibility of damaged mudstone was verified based on the geological characteristics and microscopic and strength tests. It is found that restrengthening specimens form cementation on the contacts of broken blocks. The greater the consolidation stress and moisture content, the denser the structure and the higher the strength. The research contributes to supporting the construction of weakly cemented mudstone.

Foamed concrete is a lightweight, environmentally friendly civil engineering material with excellent absorption capacity. It has been widely applied in engineering fields such as building thermal insulation and pore filling of underground buried pipelines. But the mechanical properties of existing foamed concrete cannot meet the engineering requirements for support, pressure relief and filling of weak surrounding rock. The mechanical properties of foamed concrete were improved with CNTs to prepare CNT foamed concrete (CNTFC) pressure-relieving filling materials. The effects of five factors (the fly ash (FA) incorporation rate, aggregate–cement ratio, water–binder ratio, CNT incorporation rate and foam volume fraction) on the density and 2:1 cylinder strength (the ratio of uniaxial compressive strength to apparent density), splitting tensile (the ratio of splitting tensile strength to apparent density) and specific strength of the CNTFC were analyzed. By combining stress–strain and scanning electron microscopy analyses, the mechanism of improvement of the mechanical strength of CNTFC due to CNTs was clarified. The results show that the foam volume fraction, water–binder ratio and aggregate–cement ratio are the top three factors affecting its strength, followed by the CNT incorporation rate and FA incorporation rate. Among the five influencing factors, only the incorporation of CNTs increases the 2:1 cylinder strength, splitting tensile strength and specific strength. When the doping rate is 0.05%, this ratio specifically refers to the mass of CNTs accounting for 0.05% of the mass of the total cementitious materials of cement and fly ash. At this doping dosage, compared with the condition without CNTs (0% doping dosage), the uniaxial compressive strength increased from 6.23 MPa to 7.18 MPa (with an increase rate of 15.3%). The splitting tensile strength increased from 0.958 MPa to 1.02 MPa (with an increase rate of 6.5%). The density only slightly increased from 0.98 g/cm³ to 1.0 g/cm³ (with an increase rate of 2.0%), achieving the balance of “high strength-low density”. CNTs and cement hydrates are interwoven into a network structure, and the mechanical properties of the CNTFC are effectively improved by the excellent nanoscopic tensile properties. Excessive doping of CNTs takes 0.05% as the threshold. Exceeding this doping dosage (such as 0.10% and 0.15%) leads to a decrease in its strength and ductility due to CNT agglomeration and deterioration of pore structure. And 0.05% is the ratio of the mass of CNTs to the total cementitious materials of cement and fly ash. At this doping dosage, CNTs are uniformly dispersed and can balance the strength and density of CNTFC. The optimum proportion of CNTs is 0.05%.

The effect of conventional bolt support is not ideal due to the large deformation character of soft rock. As an innovative bolt, constant resistance large deformation (CRLD) bolt has been successfully applied to swelling soft rock...