• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.81-90
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• 2008

It is of great importance to determine the optimum cutter spacing in TBM. In order to determine the optimum cutter spacing, a series of cutting tests by linear cutting machine (LCM) are performed with changing cutter space. This study showed that a numerical method for estimating the optimum cutter spacing could be developed by AUTODYN-3D in order to overcome the limitation of LCM test. By using this method, the optimum cutter spacing of Hwangdeung granite was estimated.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.501-513
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• 2020

Cutter cutting tests for the cutter placement in the cutter head are being conducted through various studies. Although the cutter spacing at the minimum specific energy is mainly reflected in the cutter head design, since the optimum cutter spacing at the same cutter penetration depth varies depending on the rock conditions, studies on deciding the optimum cutter spacing should be actively conducted. The machine learning techniques such as the decision tree-based regression model and the SVM regression model were applied to predict the optimum cutter spacing ratio for the nonlinear relationship between cutter penetration depth and cutter spacing. Since the decision tree-based methods are greatly influenced by the number of data, SVM regression predicted optimum cutter spacing ratio according to the penetration depth more accurately and it is judged that the SVM regression will be effectively used to decide the cutter spacing when designing the cutter head if a large amount of data of the optimum cutter spacing ratio according to the penetration depth is accumulated.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.22 no.4
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• pp.383-399
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• 2020

Optimizing the spacing of the disc cutter is a key element in the design of the TBM cutter head, which determines the drilling performance of the TBM. The full-scale linear cutting test is known as the most reliable and accurate test for calculating the spacing of the disc cutter, but it has the disadvantage of costly and time-consuming for the full-scale experiment. In this study, through the numerical analysis study based on the discrete element method, the tendency between Specific Energy-S/P ratio according to uniaxial compression strength and penetration depth of rock was analyzed, and the optimum spacing of 17-inch disc cutter was derived. To examine the appropriateness of the numerical analysis model, the rolling force acting on the disc cutter was compared and reviewed with the CSM model. As a result of numerical analysis for the linear cutting test, the rolling force acting on the disc cutter was analyzed to be similar to the rolling force derived from the theoretical formula of the CSM model. From the numerical analysis on 5 UCS cases (50 MPa, 70 MPa, 100 MPa, 150 MPa, 200 MPa), it is found that the range of the optimum spacing of the disc cutter decreases as the rock strength increases. And it can be concluded that 80~100 mm of disc cutter spacing is the optimum range having minimum specific energy regardless of rock strength. This tends to coincide with the optimal spacing of previously reported disk cutters, which underpins the disk cutter spacing calculated through this study.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.139-152
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• 2008

A series of numerical experiments were carried out to simulate the rock cutting behavior by TBM disc cutter in a given took condition. AUTODYN-3D, a commercial program capable of simulating three-dimensional dynamic failure, was utilized to carry out the numerical tests over four different disc cutter spacing conditions. After modelling three-dimensional geometries of disc cutter and rock specimen, the linear cutting tests by a disc cutter were simulated for eight different types of rocks. The numerical result, that is the optimum cutter spacing for isotropic rocks had the good agreements with those from linear cutting test. However, for relatively anisotropic or jointed rocks, the specific energy obtained from the numerical tests was almost two-times bigger than the real linear cutting results. Therefore, to simulate cutting procedures for anisotropic rocks realistically, further studies would be necessary.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.811-822
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• 2018

Chip size distribution can be used to evaluate the cutting efficiency and to characterize the cutting behavior of rock during cutting and fragmentation process. In this study, a series of linear cutting tests was performed to investigate the effect of cutting conditions (specifically cut spacing and penetration depth) on the production and size distribution of rock chips. Linyi sandstone from China was used in the linear cutting tests. After each run of linear cutting machine test, the rock chips were collected and their size distribution was analyzed using a sieving test and image processing. Image processing can rapidly and cost-effectively provide useful information of size distribution. Rosin-Rammer distribution pamameters, the coarseness index and the coefficients of uniformity and curvature were determined by image processing for different cutting conditions. The size of the rock chips was greatest at the optimum cut spacing, and the size distribution parameters were highly correlated with cutter forces and specific energy.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.345-356
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• 2013

Numerical simulation on rock cutting by a TBM disc cutter was carried out using SPH (Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics) code. AUTODYN3D, a commercial software program based on finite element method, was used in this study. The three-dimensional geometry of a disc cutter and a rock specimen were modeled by Lagrange and SPH code respectively. The numerical simulation was carried out for Hwangdeung granite for 10 different cutting conditions. The results of the numerical simulation, i.e. the relation between cutter force and failure behavior, had a good agreement with those from LCM test. The cutter forces measured in the numerical simulation had 10% deviation from the LCM test results. Moreover, the optimum cutter spacing was almost identical with the experimental results. These results indicate that SPH code can be successfully used had applicability for simulation on rock cutting by a TBM disc cutter. However, further study on Lagrange-SPH coupled modelling would be necessary to reduce the computation time.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.161-182
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• 2018

We carried out a series of linear cutting machine tests to assess the cutting performance of a pick cutter in sedimentary rock. The specimens were Linyi sandstone from China and Concrete (rock-like material, conglomerate). Using the small scaled LCM system, we estimated the cutter force and specific energy under different cutting conditions. The cutter forces (cutting and normal) increased with penetration depth and cutter spacing in two rock types, and it was affected by the strength of specimens. On the other hand, the ratio of the peak cutter force to the mean cutter force was influenced by cutting characteristic and composition of rock rather than rock strength. The cutting coefficient was affected by the friction characteristic between rock and pick cutter rather than the cutting conditions. Therefore, the optimal cutting angle can be determined by considering of cutting coefficient and resultant force of pick cutter. The optimum cutting condition was determined from the relationship between the specific energy and cutting condition. For two specimens, the optimum s/p ratio was found to be two to four, and the specific energy decreased with the penetration depth. The result from this study can be used as background database to understand the cutting mechanism of a pick cutter, also it can be used to design for the mechanical excavator.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.531-555
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• 2011

This study aims to derive the statistical models for the estimation of the required specifications of a rock TBM as well as for its cutterhead design suitable for a given rock mass condition. From a series of multi-variate regression analysis of 871 TBM driving data and 51 linear rock cutting test results, the optimum models were newly proposed to consider a variety of rock properties and mechanical cutting conditions. When the derived models were applied to two domestic shield tunnels, their predictions of cutter penetration depth, cutter acting forces and cutter spacing were very close to real TBM driving data, showing their high applicability.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Rock Mechanics Conference
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• 2006.03a
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• pp.217-236
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• 2006

In this study, the LCM was applied as the preliminary study for the cutterhead design of TBM and the drilling performance evaluation. The optimum cutting condition is obtained from the LCM tests and the effects of the design factors of IBM cutterhead, such as penetration depth and cutter spacing, on drilling performance are estimated. In this study, hence, to predict the accurate performance of TBM, instead of one-dimensional penetration depth applied in existing studies, three-dimensional cutting volume was quantified and measured. For this, the digital photogrammetry technique was applied to the LCM tests. Also, AUTODYN 2D was applied to investigate the applicability of the numerical analysis technique to simulate the cutting process of rock by the TBM disc cutter.