Modellförsök avseende bergspänningars betydelse för spännvidd av valv

Sammanfattning: Tunnels and anthropogenic underground cavities are a very natural part of our everyday modern life. Especially in larger cities such as Stockholm where the infrastructure reaches far above ground level as well as deep below the surface. Metro, commuter train, cars along with many other ways of transportation have been moved below the surface the last century. Before then there were neither the technology nor the knowledge of how tunnels and underground cavities should be constructed so that the safety is not neglected. Several different forces are present in the bedrock below us, such as the weight of the overlying rock/strata and stresses due to tectonic, thermal, or hydrostatic forces among other. Knowledge of these forces and stresses are essential so that you will not get a piece of rock falling on your head on your way home from work with the metro. In most of the cases the roof of tunnels or underground cavities are shaped like an arch, and the stability of these arches depends on several aspects. At excavation of rock, there are natural arches in the bedrock. However, the stability of these arches depends on stresses, amount of overlying rock and the presence of rock joints and fractures (amount, directions and the characteristics of rock joints and fractures are important). These among other aspects determine the stability and the size of the arch. The natural arch in a manmade underground cavity or tunnel is seldom sufficient for it to be safe enough for humans to be in. There is a need for reinforcement of different kinds, where rock bolting is one of the most common. This bachelor’s thesis used a model to simulate arches in tunnels and cavities. The model which simulated an arch was an uplifted box (820x820x250 mm) with railroad macadam, pressure gauges and systematically placed bolts (threaded rods with nuts and washers at each end). The bottom part of the uplifted box could be removed. With a torque wrench the macadam was subjected to different torques, and the bolts were then removed according to a pattern to see at which torques and stresses the model held. The purpose of the thesis was to develop a refined method for bolt model so that controlled experiments could be done. The purpose was as well to determine how important the stresses in the rock is for the span of the arch. The thesis should also function as an instruction for future experiments at the university.  According to the results of the experiments, both lower stresses and higher stresses gave rise to a large arch span. In many cases, an even stress distribution in the model resulted in a greater arch span, but in some cases not. More experiments would have to be done to reach a reliable result. Therefore, there is great potential for other students to continue these experiments.