Concept for Expert System for Displacement Data Evaluation

Displacement monitoring during tunnel excavation is common practice since many decades. The results commonly are used to assess the stabilization process and to adjust the excavation and support method to the actual conditions. Although monitoring is routinely done on practically all sites, a consistent collection of case histories has not been established. Thus the experience gained on other projects rarely is available for new projects. In particular in complex ground conditions it is difficult to determine the "normal behaviour" a priori. A rather long learning period is usually required to obtain a "feeling" for the characteristic system behaviour. Typically a sub optimal construction is the consequence. To better utilize previous experience, and to reduce "surprises" due to unexpected geological conditions, an expert system for the evaluation of displacement monitoring data is under development. The structure of the system and some features are described in this paper.