The rockburst has become one of the most serious and frequent disasters when the underground activities go deeper. It can be essentially divided into incubation and occurrence phases, where the incubation phase belongs to a long-term energy accumulation quasi-static problem and the occurrence phase is an instantaneously dynamic process with massive energy release. Effective numerical method that can describe the entire process of rockburst from incubation to occurrence phase is of great significance and importance for digging out the mechanism of the rockburst. In this study, the numerical simulation was carried out to investigate the dynamic responses and failure characteristics of the tunnel during the rockburst, as well as the physical mechanics lying behind. Firstly, to investigate the entire process of the rockburst, based on finite element method (FEM), a new numerical method which integrates the functions of static and dynamic analysis was developed. Subsequently, twodimensional numerical model was established based on the engineering background of the Qinling Water Conveyance Tunnel project in Shaanxi Province, China. The effect of the existing fault on the rockburst during the excavation process were analyzed in detailed. The simulation results suggested that the proposed numerical method could successfully model the entire process of the rockburst. The derived failure characteristics of the tunnel agreed well with the actual field observations. The dip angle, thickness and elastic modulus of the existing fault have a significantly effect on the rockburst. With increasing excavation distance, the time of the rockburst occurrence is highly dependent on the dip angle of the existing fault, but weakly correlated with the thickness and elastic modulus of the existing fault. With increasing the dip angle and thickness of the existing fault, the damage region of the surrounding rock caused by the rockburst gradually decreased, while the failure extent of the surrounding rock near the advancing face of the tunnel significantly increased. The interface between the fault and the surrounding rock acts as a buffer, effectively mitigating the vibration of the surrounding rock and this phenomenon becomes more pronounced as elastic modulus of the fault decreased. Finally, there is a significant correlation between the areas of damage and failure and the PPV values of the surrounding rock. According to the distribution characteristic of PPVs, a classification of the surrounding rock status after rockburst was proposed, corresponding to the complete destruction, serious damage, strong vibration and slight vibration areas, respectively. The findings in this study would provide a better understanding of the entire process of the rockburst, particularly in the faulted rock masses.
