Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association ISSN:2233-8292(Print) 2287-4747(Online) 한국터널지하공간학회 논문집

Rock mass rating (RMR) is the key factor when designing the appropriate support pattern of tunnel projects. Borehole drilling is usually performed along the tunnel route in order to determine the rock mass rating to be used for tunnel design. The rock mass rating at the non-boring region between boreholes is usually assessed through geophysical surveys such as electrical prospecting, seismic prospecting, etc. Many studies were carried out to find out the correlation between electrical resistivity and rock mass rating. However, most researches were aimed at obtaining the relationship between the two parameters utilizing experimental results obtained from laboratory tests or electrical prospectings. In this paper, efforts were made to analyze and obtain relationships between the electrical resistivity obtained from in-situ electrical resistivity logging data and the rock mass rating. Correlation studies using field data showed that the electrical resistivity is highly correlated with the rock mass rating with the determination coefficient more than 90%. The correlation analysis was also carried out between RMR classification parameters and the electrical resistivity. It was shown that the correlation between the condition of discontinuities and the electrical resistivity was very high with the determination coefficient more than 80%; that between the groundwater condition and the electrical resistivity was very low with the determination coefficient less than 57%.