• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.534-546
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• 2023

If the disc cutter is excessively worn or damaged, it becomes incapable of rotating and efficiently cutting rockmass. Therefore, it is important to appropriately manage the replacement cycle of the disc cutter based on its degree of wear. In general, the replacement cycle is determined based on the results of manual inspection. However, the manual measurements has issues related to worker safety and may lead to inaccurate measurement results. For these reasons, some foreign countries are developing the real-time measurement system of disc cutter wear by using different sensors. The ultrasonic sensors, eddy current sensors, magnetic sensors, and others are utilized for measuring the wear amount of disc cutters. In this study, the applicability of eddy current sensors for real-time measurement of wear amount in TBM disc cutters was evaluated. The distance measurement accuracy of the eddy current sensor was assessed through laboratory tests. In particular, the accuracy of eddy-current sensor was evaluated in various environmental conditions within the cutterhead chamber. In addition, the measurement accuracy of the eddy current sensor was validated using a 17-inch disc cutter.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.54-65
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• 2013

The LCM (Linear Cutting Machine) test is one of the most powerful and reliable methods for designing the disc cutter and for predicting the TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine) performance. It has an advantage to predict the actual load on disc cutter from the laboratory test on the real-size large rock samples, however, it also has a disadvantage to transport and/or prepare the large rock samples and to need an extra cost for experiment. In order to overcome this problem, lots of numerical studies have been performed. In this study, the PFC3D (Particle Flow Code in 3 Dimension) has been adopted for numerical analysis on optimum cutter spacing and failure aspects of Busan Tuff. The optimum cutting condition with s/p ratio of 16 and minimum specific energy of $14MJ/m^3$ was derived from numerical analyses. The cutter spacing for Busan Tuff had the good agreements with those of LCM test and numerical analysis by finite element method.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.359-368
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• 2022

Undercutting using an actuated disc cutter (ADC) involves more complex cutting mechanism than traditional rock cutting does, requiring the application of various new cutting parameters, such as eccentricity, cutter inclination angle, and axis rotational speed. This study presents cutting-edge laboratory-scale testing equipment that allows performing ADC tests. ADC tests were carried out on a concrete block with a specified strength of 20 MPa, using a variety of cutting settings that included penetration depth (p), eccentricity (e), and linear velocity (v). ADC, unlike pick and disc cutting, has a non-linear cutting path with a dynamic cutting direction, requiring the development of a new method for predicting cutting force and specific energy. The influence of cutting parameters to the cutter forces were discussed. The ratio of eccentricity to the penetration depth (e/p) was proposed to evaluate the optimal cutting condition. Specific energy varies with e/p ratio, and exhibits optimum values in particular cases. In general, actuated undercutting may potentially give a more efficient cutting than conventional pick and disc cutting by demonstrating reasonably lower specific energy in a comparable cutting environment.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.475-488
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• 2017

Wear prediction of TBM disc cutters is a very important issue for hard rock TBMs as number of cutter head intervention. In this regard, some model such as NTNU, Gehring model, CSM models have been used to predict disc cutter wear and intervention interval. There are some deficiencies in these models. This paper developed a new test method for wear prediction for TBM disc cutter and proposed a new abrasion index. In this regard, different abrasivity indices along with their testing methods are explained. A comparative study is performed to develop the predictability of different cutter life evaluation methods and index. The evaluation of the new methods proposed in this paper shows a very good agreement with the actual cutter life and intervention interval length. The proposed tester and index can be easily used to predict the intervention interval length and cutter wear evaluation in both planning and construction stages of a TBM tunneling project.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-12
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• 2021

In the design of a tunnel boring machine (TBM), the excavation efficiency of the equipment depends on the design of the cutter head, which is directly in contact with the ground. Especially, the allocation of disc cutter is crucial issue. Disc cutters can be divided into center cutter zone, inner cutter zone and transition cutter zone depending on where they are placed. Many studies have been conducted to identify optimal cutting conditions for face cutters. However, research to determine the optimal cutting conditions for the transition cutter has been relatively incomplete. In this study, to identify the optimal cutting conditions for the transition cutter, numerical analysis using discrete element method was performed, and the specific energy curve according to the angle between the transition cutters was drawn to find out the optimum cutting conditions. The results show that the angle between the transition cutters showing minimum specific energy in the transition cutter zone is 9°. Transition cutter zone was divided into three sections according to the slope angle of the transition cutter. It is also found that, the greater the slope angle of the transition cutter. This finding shows good agreement with the present design of transition cutter zone.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.440-449
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• 2009

LCM test is one of the most powerful and reliable methods of experiment for the cutter head design and the performance prediction of TBM. In many cases, however, the predicted design model can be directly applied to the field design, because this test may have an uppermost limit in preparation and/or transportation of the large size rock samples and the test for the jointed rock mass is not easy. When the proper and reasonable numerical modeling is considered to overcome this limit, the most adequate cutter head design for TBM could be presented without any complicate preconsideration in the field. In this study, the crack propagation patterns dependent on the contact point of disc cutter and the angle of rock joint are analyzed for the rock specimen with a single joint using the UDEC. The authors could derive the appropriate contact points of disc cutters and their space with respect to the joint angle in rock mass thru the numerical analysis.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.1091-1104
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• 2018

Wear prediction of TBM disc cutters is a very important issue during design as well as construction stages for hard rock TBMs as the cutter head intervention is directly related to the time and cost of tunneling. For that, some methods such as NTNU, CSM and Gehring models were used to predict disc cutter wear and intervention interval. There are however some problems to be addressed in these models in terms of accuracy and time for testing, so that a NAT (New Abrasion Tester) model has been developed in order to achieve simplicity and reliability together at the same time (Farrokh and Kim, 2018). On the basis, the proposed NAT model has been applied to ${\bigcirc}{\bigcirc}$ project in Korea. A comparative study was performed to compare with the conventional methods and as a result the NAT model showed a very good agreement with actual cutter life. The NAT model will be further applied to other projects to establish credibility.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.143-153
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• 2024

Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) method is a tunnel excavation method that produces lower levels of noise and vibration during excavation compared to drilling and blasting methods, and it offers higher stability. It is increasingly being applied to tunnel projects worldwide. The disc cutter is an excavation tool mounted on the cutterhead of a TBM, which constantly interacts with the ground at the tunnel face, inevitably leading to wear. In this study quantitatively predicted disc cutter wear using geological conditions, TBM operational parameters, and machine learning algorithms. Among the input variables for predicting disc cutter wear, the Uniaxial Compressive Strength (UCS) is considerably limited compared to machine and wear data, so the UCS estimation for the entire section was first conducted using TBM machine data, and then the prediction of the Coefficient of Wearing rate(CW) was performed with the completed data. Comparing the performance of CW prediction models, the XGBoost model showed the highest performance, and SHapley Additive exPlanation (SHAP) analysis was conducted to interpret the complex prediction model.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.281-301
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• 2024

The power cable tunnels which are part of the underground transmission line project, are constructed using the shield TBM method. The disc cutter among the shield TBM components plays an important role in breaking rock mass. Efficient tunnel construction is possible only when appropriate replacement occurs as the wear limit is reached or damage such as uneven wear occurs. A study was conducted to determine the wear conditions of disc cutter using a deep learning algorithm based on real-time measurement data of wear and rotation speed. Based on the results of full-scaled tunnelling tests, it was confirmed that measurement data was obtained differently depending on the wear conditions of disc cutter. Using real-time measurement data, an algorithm was developed to determine disc cutter wear characteristics based on a convolutional neural network model. Distributional patterns of data can be learned through CNN filters, and the performance of the model that can classify uniform wear and uneven wear through these pattern features.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.237-251
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• 2013

This study aimed to estimate the axial stress and torque on a shaft in a disc cutter. The corresponding inner temperature and the surface temperature of a cutter ring were also measured by using strain gauges and thermocouples during the linear cutting tests. The maximum values of the axial stress and torque were recorded to 11.3 MPa, $171kN{\cdot}m$ respectively. They have higher correlations with normal force rather than rolling force. The results of temperature measured by thermocouples during a linear cutting test showed that the rate of increase in temperature was below $0.2^{\circ}C$. When the cutter spacing is set to be 70 mm, the inner temperature and surface temperature of a disc cutter were $0.1^{\circ}C/m$, $0.15{\sim}0.17^{\circ}C/m$ respectively. Similarly, when the cutter spacing is 90 mm, the temperature values were $0.09^{\circ}C/m$, $0.13{\sim}0.23^{\circ}C/m$ respectively.