Thin spray-on liners (TSLs) have been found to be effective for structurally supporting the walls of mining tunnels and thus reducing the occurrence of rock bursts, an effect primarily due to the penetration of cracks by the liner. Surface tension effects are thus important. However, TSLs are also used to simply stabilize rock surfaces, for example, to prevent rock fall, and in this context crack penetration is desirable but not necessary, and the tensile and shearing strength and adhesive properties of the liner determine its effectiveness. We examine the effectiveness of nonpenetrating TSLs in a global lined tunnel and in a local rock support context. In the tunnel context, we examine the effect of the liner on the stress distribution in a tunnel subjected to a geological or mining event. We show that the liner has little effect on stresses in the surrounding rock and that tensile stresses in the rock surface are transmitted across the liner, so that failure is likely to be due to liner rupture or detachment from the surface. In the local rock support context, loose rock movements are shown to be better achieved using a liner with small Young’s modulus, but high rupture strength.

In this paper, the two classical elasticity problems, Lamé problem and stress concentration factor, are revisited by using the null-field boundary integral equation (BIE). The null-field boundary integral formulation is utilized in conjunction with degenerate kernels and Fourier series. To fully utilize the circular geometry, the fundamental solutions and the boundary densities are expanded by using degenerate kernels and Fourier series, respectively. In the two classical problems of elasticity, the null-field BIE is employed to derive the exact solutions. The Kelvin solution is first separated to degenerate kernel in this paper. After employing the null-field BIE, not only the stress but also the displacement field are obtained at the same time. In a similar way, Lamé problem is solved without any difficulty.