Understanding and considering service safety in underground space engineering

With the increasing scale of underground space projects in China, the types of underground space development and utilization are characterized by diversification, deepening, and complexity. Moreover, many underground space projects have been transferred from the construction stage to the long-term, safe, and stable operation stage. At present, and even in the future, how to maintain the safety and stability of underground space engineering during excavation, construction, and service is an important topic that must be considered. Based on the analysis of the complex geological conditions faced by underground space engineering, the influence of construction quality on service safety, deterioration of structural performance caused by environmental factors and sudden disasters, and extensive development of underground space, this study identified three key scientific problems of service safety in underground space engineering, namely, the law of damage and deterioration of structural materials under multi-field coupling, dynamic fatigue damage characteristics of structures under cyclic dynamic load, and interaction between support and surrounding rock. This study summarized and commented on the failure process of rock and concrete in special environments, dynamic mechanical properties of rock and concrete under dynamic load, damage test and evaluation method of rock mass under explosion load, rock and concrete fatigue, surrounding rock stability analysis, support mechanism of underground space engineering, and other related research work and latest progress. Finally, this study specified the future development trend of this subject and the basic research work that needs to be focused on and strengthened, that is, developing new green building materials for underground space engineering, establishing a new support design theory, conducting underground space service safety research based on artificial intelligence, and building a full life-cycle underground space service risk analysis, prevention and control system, so as to provide scientific ideas and feasible methods to ensure the service safety of urban underground space engineering.