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Frontiers of Structural and Civil Engineering

ISSN 2095-2430

ISSN 2095-2449(Online)

CN 10-1023/X

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Front. Struct. Civ. Eng.    2023, Vol. 17 Issue (4) : 522-532    https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-023-0930-9
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Effect of cutterhead configuration on tunnel face stability during shield machine maintenance outages
Yinzun YANG1,2, Dajun YUAN1,2, Dalong JIN1,2()
1. Key Laboratory of the Ministry of Education for Urban Underground Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
2. School of Civil Engineering, Beijing Jiaotong University, Beijing 100044, China
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Abstract

Owing to long-distance advancement or obstacles, shield tunneling machines are typically shut down for maintenance. Engineering safety during maintenance outages is determined by the stability of the tunnel face. Pressure maintenance openings are typically used under complicated hydrogeological conditions. The tunnel face is supported by a medium at the bottom of the excavation chamber and compressed air at the top. Owing to the high risk of face failure, the necessity of support pressure when cutterhead support is implemented and a method for determining the value of compressed air pressure using different support ratios must to be determined. In this study, a non-fully chamber supported rotational failure model considering cutterhead support is developed based on the upper-bound theorem of limit analysis. Numerical simulation is conducted to verify the accuracy of the proposed model. The results indicate that appropriately increasing the specific gravity of the supporting medium can reduce the risk of collapse. The required compressed air pressure increases significantly as the support ratio decreases. Disregarding the supporting effect of the cutterhead will result in a tunnel face with underestimated stability. To satisfy the requirement of chamber openings at atmospheric pressure, the stratum reinforcement strength and range at the shield end are provided based on different cutterhead aperture ratios.
Keywords tunnel face stability      cutterhead configuration      aperture ratio      pressure gradient      support ratio     
Corresponding Author(s): Dalong JIN   
About author:

* These authors contributed equally to this work.
Just Accepted Date: 21 February 2023   Online First Date: 26 May 2023    Issue Date: 25 June 2023
 Cite this article:   
Yinzun YANG,Dajun YUAN,Dalong JIN. Effect of cutterhead configuration on tunnel face stability during shield machine maintenance outages[J]. Front. Struct. Civ. Eng., 2023, 17(4): 522-532.
 URL:  
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fsce/EN/10.1007/s11709-023-0930-9
https://academic.hep.com.cn/fsce/EN/Y2023/V17/I4/522
Fig.1  Chamber opening modes: (a) chamber opening at atmospheric pressure; (b) pressure maintenance chamber opening. Notes: orange region: cutterhead; gray region: supporting medium pressure; blue region: compressed air pressure.
Fig.2  Schematic diagram of the non-fully supported mode (σS: uniform support pressure, σSk: gradient support pressure, σA: compressed air support pressure).
Fig.3  Discretization technique for the collapse mechanism of tunnel face.
Fig.4  (a) Computation of work rates of tunnel face (vj represents the velocity of the discretized element on tunnel face); (b) schematic illustration of rotational failure mechanism.
materialunit weight (kN·m3)cohesion (kPa)internal friction angle (° )Poisson’s ratioelastic modulus (MPa)
soil18.07170.3024
cutterhead78.5––0.262.06 × 105
shell28.0––0.162.3 × 104
Tab.1  Parameters of soil, cutterhead, and segment
Fig.5  Schematic diagram of model: (a) integral model; (b) tunnel face; (c) spoke cutterhead; (d) spoke-panel cutterhead. Notes: red cross: uniform support pressure; black cross: uniform support pressure + gradient support pressure; white cross: static earth pressure.
Fig.6  Limit support pressure vs. support ratio for different aperture ratios.
Fig.7  Horizontal displacement of point C.
Fig.8  Effects of tunnel diameter and stratum internal frictional angle on limit support pressure σS.
Fig.9  Effects of support pressure gradient and stratum cohesive on limit support pressure σS.
Fig.10  Schematic diagram of limit reinforcement range dS.
Fig.11  Effects of internal friction angle and aperture ratio on stratum reinforcement strength qul.
Fig.12  Effects of internal friction angle and aperture ratio on stratum reinforcement range dS.
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