• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.533-542
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• 2014

In this study TBM disc cutter prediction models including Gehring, CSM and NTNU models were investigated and the characteristics of the models were examined. The influence of penetration, uniaxial compressive strength and abrasiveness index on the models was analyzed. The life of disc cutter linearly increases with penetration per revolution and decreases with increasing uniaxial compressive strength of rocks. As the abrasiveness index, CAI, increases, the life of disc cutter in Gehring and CSM model decreases. On the contrary, the life of disc cutter life in NTNU model decreases with increasing CLI. Also, comparisons of predicted disc life were made between models using actual job site data.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.575-589
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• 2020

In recent years, Shield TBM construction has been continuously increasing in domestic tunnels. The main excavation tool in the shield TBM construction is a disc cutter which naturally wears during the excavation process and significantly degrades the excavation efficiency. Therefore, it is important to know the appropriate time of the disc cutter replacement. In this study, it is proposed a predictive model that can determine yes/no of disc cutter replacement using machine learning algorithm. To do this, the shield TBM machine data which is highly correlated to the disc cutter wears and the disc cutter replacement from the shield TBM field which is already constructed are used as the input data in the model. Also, the algorithms used in the study were the support vector machine, k-nearest neighbor algorithm, and decision tree algorithm are all classification methods used in machine learning. In order to construct an optimal predictive model and to evaluate the performance of the model, the classification performance evaluation index was compared and analyzed.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.154-168
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• 2024

The Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) disc cutter is subjected to wear and damage during the rock excavation process, and the worn disc cutter should be replaced on time. The manual inspection by workers is generally required to determine the disc cutter replacement. In this case, the workers are exposed to dangerous environments, and the measurements are sometimes inaccurate. In this study, we developed a technology that measures the disc cutter wear in real time. From a series of laboratory tests, a magnetic sensor was selected as the wear sensor, and the real-time disc cutter measurement system was developed integrating wireless communication modules, power supply and data processing board. In addition, the measurement system was verified in actual TBM excavation circumstances. As a result, it was confirmed that the accuracy and stability of the system.

• 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.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.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.502-517
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• 2022

As the use of TBM increases, research has recently increased to to analyze TBM data with machine learning techniques to predict the exchange cycle of disc cutters, and predict the advance rate of TBM. In this study, a regression prediction of disc cutte wear of slurry shield TBM site was made by combining machine learning based on the machine data and the geotechnical data obtained during the excavation. The data were divided into 7:3 for training and testing the prediction of disc cutter wear, and the hyper-parameters are optimized by cross-validated grid-search over a parameter grid. As a result, gradient boosting based on the ensemble model showed good performance with a determination coefficient of 0.852 and a root-mean-square-error of 3.111 and especially excellent results in fit times along with learning performance. Based on the results, it is judged that the suitability of the prediction model using data including mechanical data and geotechnical information is high. In addition, research is needed to increase the diversity of ground conditions and the amount of disc cutter data.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.163-176
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• 2017

The Discrete Element Method (DEM) has been widely used in civil engineering as well as various industrial fields to simulate granular materials. In this study, DEM was adopted to predict the performance of the face plate-type earth pressure balance (EPB) shield TBM (Tunnel Boring Machine). An analysis of the TBM excavation performance was conducted according to two pre-defined excavation conditions with the different rotation speeds per minute (RPM) of the cutterhead. The TBM model which was used in this study has a 6.64 m of diameter and six spokes. Also, 37 precutters and 98 scrapers at an each spoke were modeled with a real-scale specification. From the analysis, compressive forces at the cutterhead face, shield and cutting tools, resistant torques at the cutterhead face, muck discharge rate and accumulated muck discharge by the screw auger were measured and compared.

• 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.

• 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.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.