Abstract
Advancing into the deep Earth represents a strategic scientific and technological challenge that must be addressed, and the development of deep underground resources and space has emerged as a crucial direction for China's future scientific and technological advancement. As a significant clean energy source in China, hydropower infrastructure is experiencing underground engineering depths advancing toward the ultra-thousand-meter scale. Confronted with extremely complex geological environments, deep engineering projects under current technical standard frameworks suffer from inadequate design methodologies and poorly understood surrounding rock failure mechanisms. There is an urgent imperative to elucidate the geological characteristics and deep-seated relationships of deep-buried hydropower underground engineering to eliminate the blindness and uncertainty inherent in its construction. This paper systematically reviews deep-depth concepts across various industries for deep underground engineering and, integrating the specific features of underground hydraulic structures in hydropower projects, delineates the burial depth criteria for deep underground hydropower engineering from perspectives including deep engineering geological environment characteristics and surrounding rock failure mechanisms. Building upon this foundation, the paper identifies and anticipates key technical challenges requiring breakthroughs in precise exploration and drilling-while-sensing technologies, design theory innovation for large-scale deep-buried cavern complexes, engineering layout optimization and intelligent construction, disaster prevention and active control systems, and smart operation-maintenance integrated with emergency escape capabilities, thereby providing technical support for the design, construction, and operation of deep underground hydropower engineering and facilitating deep energy resource development.
Full Text
Deep Underground Hydropower Engineering: Geological Environment, Surrounding Rock Failure, and Technical Challenges
ZHANG Shishu, ZHAO Xiaoping
PowerChina Chengdu Engineering Corporation Limited, Chengdu 610031, China
Abstract
Venturing into the deep Earth represents a strategic scientific and technological challenge that must be addressed. As the development of deep resources and space emerges as a critical direction for China's future scientific advancement, hydropower—an essential clean energy source—is seeing its underground engineering projects extend to depths exceeding several kilometers. However, these extreme and complex geological environments expose critical deficiencies in existing technical standards, including inappropriate design methodologies and an incomplete understanding of surrounding rock failure mechanisms. Consequently, there is an urgent need to clarify the geological characteristics of deep-buried hydropower underground projects and their relationship with depth, thereby eliminating the blindness and uncertainty currently plaguing deep underground hydropower construction.
This paper systematically reviews the concept of "deep" across different industries and, by integrating the unique characteristics of underground hydraulic structures in hydropower projects, establishes a definition for the burial depth of deep underground hydropower engineering. This definition is grounded in two key aspects: the geological environment characteristics of deep engineering and the failure mechanisms of surrounding rock in underground hydropower projects.
Building upon this foundation, the paper identifies and prospects key technical challenges requiring breakthroughs in five critical areas: precision exploration and while-drilling sensing technologies, innovative design theories for large-scale deep-buried cavern groups, intelligent construction and engineering layout optimization, disaster prevention and active control systems, and smart operation and maintenance integrated with emergency evacuation capabilities. The objective is to provide robust technical support for the design, construction, and operation of deep underground hydropower projects, thereby advancing the development of deep energy resources.
Keywords: Hydropower Engineering; Deep Engineering Geology; Geological Environment; Surrounding Rock Failure; Technical Challenges