• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.1
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• pp.73-84
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• 2024

Owing to the high strength and abrasive characteristics of cobble-boulders, cutters are easily worn and damaged during shield tunneling, making construction inefficient. In the present work, the stress on the ripper and scraper on the cutterhead was analyzed by the PFC3D-FLAC3D coupling model of shield tunneling to get insight into the performance of the cutterhead for cutting underground cobble and boulders. The numerical calculation results revealed that the increase in trajectory radius leads to a rising stress on the cutters, and the stress on the front cutting surface is greater than that on the back of the cutters. Moreover, the correlation between cutter wear and stress is revealed based on field measurement data. The distribution of the cutter stress is consistent with the cutter wear and breakage characteristics in actual construction, in which more extensive cutter stress is exhibited, extreme cutter wear appears, and more cutter breakage occurs. Finally, the relationship between the cutterhead opening area's layout and cutter wear distribution was investigated, indicating that the cutter wear extent is the most severe in the region where the radial opening ratio dropped sharply.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.35 no.6
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• pp.647-663
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• 2023

The investigation of the disc cutter wear prediction has an important guiding role in TBM equipment selection, project planning, and cost forecasting, especially when tunneling in a long-distance rock formations with high strength and high abrasivity. In this study, a comprehensive database of disc cutter wear data, geological properties, and tunneling parameters is obtained from a 1326 m excavated metro tunnel project in leptynite in Shenzhen, China. The failure forms and wear consumption of disc cutters on site are analyzed with emphasis. The results showed that 81% of disc cutters fail due to uniform wear, and other cutters are replaced owing to abnormal wear, especially flat wear of the cutter rings. In addition, it is found that there is a reasonable direct proportional relationship between the uniform wear rate (WR) and the installation radius (R), and the coefficient depends on geological characteristics and tunneling parameters. Thus, a preliminary prediction formula of the uniform wear rate, based on the installation radius of the cutterhead, was established. The correlation between some important geological properties (K_V and UCS) along with some tunneling parameters (F_n and p) and wear rate was discussed using regression analysis methods, and several prediction models for uniform wear rate were developed. Compared with a single variable, the multivariable model shows better prediction ability, and 89% of WR can be accurately estimated. The prediction model has reliability and provides a practical tool for wear prediction of disc cutter under similar hard rock projects with similar geological conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Technology Engineers
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.72-79
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• 2000

A new optimal tool design model which can be minimized the resultant cutting forces under the constrains of variables was developed. The resultant cutting forces are used as the objective function and tool angles are used as the variables. Cutting experiments of tool wear and chip length using the new and conventional tools wee carried out. Tool life of optimized cutter are more increased than those of conventional cutter by 2.29 times and 2.52 times at light and at heavy cutting conditions respectively. Chip length of optimized cutter are more increased than those of conventional cutter It is considered that the decrease of the resultant cutting forces is the cause that an effective rake and shear angles by the shape of optimal cutter.

• 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.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 1996.11a
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• pp.74-79
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• 1996

The wear of partially coated pinion cutters under several cutting conditions was studied. In the realm of this experiment, chipping was a dominant tool wear mechanism and flank wear was much larger than crater wear. Under the condition of relatively low rotary feed and low radial feed rate, the wear due to chipping was concentrated at the nose part of pinion cutter. Increasing of rotary feed and radial feed rate alleviated the concentration of chipping at nose and prolonged tool life.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers
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• v.18 no.9
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• pp.2225-2233
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• 1994

In order to improve the cutting ability of face mill, a model for optimal cutter shape was developed to minimize resultant cutting force by combing cutting force model and optimal technique. Wear test and surface roughness test for optimized and conventional cutter were performed. The new optimized cutter shows longer tool life of 2.29 times than conventional cutter in light cutting condition and 2.52 times in heavy cutting condition. The surface roughness of workpiece by optimized cutter is improved in heavy cutting condition, but deteriorated in light cutting condition in comparison with conventional cutter. The surface profiles of workpiece were analyzed by Fourier transformation. The distribution of cut lay left on workpiece by optimized cutter is more regular than that by the conventional cutter.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.3
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• pp.249-258
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• 2022

A disc cutter is an excavation tool on a tunnel boring machine (TBM) cutterhead; it crushes and cuts rock mass while the machine excavates using the cutterhead's rotational movement. Disc cutter wear occurs naturally. Thus, along with the management of downtime and excavation efficiency, abrasioned disc cutters need to be replaced at the proper time; otherwise, the construction period could be delayed and the cost could increase. The most common prediction models for TBM performance and for the disc cutter lifetime have been proposed by the Colorado School of Mines and Norwegian University of Science and Technology. However, design parameters of existing models do not well correspond to the field values when a TBM encounters complex and difficult ground conditions in the field. Thus, this study proposes a series of machine learning models to predict the disc cutter lifetime of a shield TBM using the excavation (machine) data during operation which is response to the rock mass. This study utilizes five different machine learning techniques: four types of classification models (i.e., K-Nearest Neighbors (KNN), Support Vector Machine, Decision Tree, and Staking Ensemble Model) and one artificial neural network (ANN) model. The KNN model was found to be the best model among the four classification models, affording the highest recall of 81%. The ANN model also predicted the wear rate of disc cutters reasonably well.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.185-192
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• 2005

The press cutter is productive equipment that practically manufactures mechanical components and polymer-based materials such as fabrics, papers, films, leathers, and rubbers into the desired shapes using a press cutting tool. The plate cutting process is one of the primary energy absorbing mechanisms in a grounding or collision event between a press cutter and a material on a die. The cutting mechanism is complicated and involves plastic flows of a plate in the vicinity of the tip, friction between the wedge and the plate, deformation of the plate. In this paper, we studied the effect of friction between cutter and plastic sheet far producing precise and superior products. In this paper, the press cutter is analyzed numerically using MARC finite element program for a optimization design of a press cutter. The FEM computed results show that the maximum von Mises stress is concentrated on the tip of a press cutter, which may lead to the edge wear or impact wear of the sharp cutter. Based on the FEM result and Taguchi's experimental design method, the optimized design model 9 for a press cutter is recommended as a best one.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.478-490
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• 2022

TBM disc cutter, which is the main cutting tool of tunnel boring machine (TBM), is replaced when it is excessively worn during the boring process. Disc cutters are usually monitored by workers at cutterhead chamber, and they check the status and wear amount of cutters. Because cutterhead chamber is usually in dangerous circumstance due to high pressure and instability of excavation surface, the measurement by manpower occasionally results in inaccuracy of measurement result. In order to overcome the limitations, the real-time disc cutter monitoring techniques have been developed in some foreign countries. This paper collected the current status of disc cutter monitoring system from the literature. Several types of sensors are used to measure the cutter wear, and it is believed that the collected information can be useful reference when similar domestic technologies are developed in the future.

• 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.