• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.193-201
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• 2014

This paper presents the development of simulation system on EPB shield TBM Hood operation. In recent, EPB shield TBM is widely used in the tunnel construction. Since the hood system of the EPB shield TBM is most important to excavate the tunnel, it is necessary to perform the simulation of hood system to investigate the design and operation parameters prior to tunnel construction. In order to carry out this study, the scaled simulation system was designed and developed. The model tests were performed to verify the developed system. During the simulation, the earth pressures developed in the chamber during tunnelling were measured to evaluate the operation technique. The test results obtained by the developed simulation system show clearly the similar behaviour of TBM hood compared with the field data. It was also found that the ground loss during tunnelling is dependent on the change of earth pressure in chamber. Therefore, the simulation system developed in this study will be very useful to evaluate the operation technique of the TBM hood prior to tunnel construction. In addition, this system will be applied in a various condition of ground to get the operating information.