Field evidence has shown that large-scale and unstable discontinuous planes in the rock mass surrounding tunnels in rich water region are probably generated after excavation. The tunnel surrounding rock was divided into three zones, including elastic zone, plastic damage zone and shear fracture zone for assessing the stability of the tunnel surrounding rock. By local hydrogeology, the stresses of surrounding rock of Jinshazhou circular tunnel was analyzed and the stress solutions on the elastic and plastic damage zones were obtained by applying the theories of fluid-solid coupling and elasto-plastic damage mechanics. The shear fracture zone generated by joints was studied and its range was determined by using Molar-Coulomb strength criterion. Finally, the correctness of the theoretical results was validated by comparing the scopes of shear fracture zones calculated in this paper with those from literature.
