• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.237-245
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• 2019

In deep mixed rock strata, a double shield TBM (DS-TBM) is easy to be entrapped by a large force during tunneling. In order to reduce the probability of the entrapment, we need to investigate a favorable driving direction, either driving with or against dip, which mainly associates with the angle between the tunneling axis and strike, ${\theta}$, as well as the dip angle of rock strata, ${\alpha}$. We, therefore, establish a 3DEC model to show the changes of displacements and contact forces in mixed rock strata through LDP (longitudinal displacement profile) and LFP (longitudinal contact force profile) curves at four characteristic points on the surrounding rock. This is followed by a series of numerical models to investigate the favorable driving direction. The computational results indicate driving with dip is the favorable tunneling direction to reduce the probability of DS-TBM entrapment, irrespective of ${\theta}$ and ${\alpha}$, which is not in full agreement with the guidelines proposed in RMR. From the favorable driving direction (i.e., driving with dip), the smallest contact force is found when ${\theta}$ is equal to $90^{\circ}$. The present study is therefore beneficial for route selection and construction design in TBM tunneling.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.397-407
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• 2015

Estimation of shield TBM tunnelling-induced volume loss is of great importance for ground settlement control. This study proposed a simple method for evaluation of volume loss during TBM tunnlling, which is able to take into account of shield machine configurations and main driving data in calculation. The method was applied to analyze the tunnelling cases with earth pressure balanced and slurry pressure balanced shiled TBM, and mostly, reasonable agreements with monitoring results were found. Additional discussions were made for some disagreements.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.18 no.1
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• pp.61-74
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• 2016

This paper presents a case study on the ground settlement and volume loss estimation for slurry pressure balanced shield TBM tunnelling in weathered zone of granite rock. Settlement at each stage of shield tunnelling was analyzed and the volume losses and settlement trough factors were estimated from observations. In addition, using the existing volume loss evaluation method in literature, volume losses were estimated considering ground properties and actual driving parameters. Most of ground settlement occurred during passage of shield skin passage and after backfill grouting, and the measured total volume loss and trough curves appeared to coincide with literature. Shield and tail loss obtained from field measurement were found to be around 90% and 60% of the predictions, where tail loss indicated larger deviation than shield loss.

• Proceedings of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute Conference
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• 2008.04a
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• pp.624-629
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• 2008

When TBM excavates a tunnel, existing concrete lining segments are used as supporting structures for driving force. Axial stress on the lining segments are apt to be large in case of direct driving force. However, it drastically decline as it is farther and father from TBM and later, it tends to converge after a certain point. Such tendencies show similar results of finite element analysis. At the initial intervals, the values of finite element analysis are larger, while at the later intervals, the actual stress values are larger. It concludes that such tendencies are attributable to that the concrete lining segments have partially burst and cracked in the axial direction at the initial intervals. And differences of stresses at the later intervals are created by the changed plasticity of ground and the friction on the external sides of the lining segments.

• 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.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.667-681
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• 2012

In general, risk management consists of a series of processes or steps including risk identification, risk analysis, risk evaluation, risk mitigation measures, and risk re-evaluation. In this paper, potential risk factors that occur in shield TBM tunnels were investigated based on many previous case studies and questionaries to tunnel experts. The risk factors were classified as geological, design or construction management features. Fault Tree was set up by dividing all feasible risks into four groups that associated with: cutter; machine confinement; mucking (driving) and segments. From the Fault Tree Analysis (FTA), 12 risk items were identified and the probability of failure of each chosen risk item was obtained.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.16 no.2
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• pp.161-172
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• 2014

An earth pressure balanced shield TBM with the diameter of 4.4 m was designed and manufactured for a subsea discharge tunnel excavation. Its cutterhead was designed to be optimized for the strongest rock mass condition in the tunnel alignment, and then the applicability of the refurbished shield TBM was validated for its maximum capacity. Especially, the maximum cutter penetration depth for the strongest rock mass condition should be kept to be below 7 mm/rev in order to satisfy the allowable capacities of the shield TBM. From the analysis of TBM advance data, approximately 95% of field data showed the cutter penetration depth below 7 mm/rev. In addition, it was certified that the acting forces of every disc cutter, TBM thrust and torque during TBM driving were within the allowable capacities of the shield TBM and its disc cutters. When real acting forces of the disc cutters in the field were compared with those predicted by the CSM model, they showed the close relationships with each other even though the predictions by the CSM model were approximately 22~25% higher than field data.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.30 no.3
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• pp.214-225
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• 2020

Uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) of rock is one of the important factors to determine the advance speed during shield TBM tunnel excavation. UCS can be obtained through the Geotechnical Data Report (GDR), and it is difficult to measure UCS for all tunneling alignment. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to predict UCS by utilizing TBM machine driving data and machine learning technique. Several machine learning techniques were compared to predict UCS, and it was confirmed the stacking model has the most successful prediction performance. TBM machine data and UCS used in the analysis were obtained from the excavation of rock strata with slurry shield TBMs. The data were divided into 8:2 for training and test and pre-processed including feature selection, scaling, and outlier removal. After completing the hyper-parameter tuning, the stacking model was evaluated with the root-mean-square error (RMSE) and the determination coefficient (R²), and it was found to be 5.556 and 0.943, respectively. Based on the results, the sacking models are considered useful in predicting rock strength with TBM excavation data.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.456-467
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• 2019

In this study, the discrete element method was used to simulate the excavation of spoke-type shield TBM. The horizontal stress coefficient was used for the ground to simulate the increase of the horizontal stress according to the depth, and the driving conditions were set based on the torque generated from the cutterhead of the TBM to excavate within the operating range. That is, when the value of the torque generated at the cutterhead exceeds the given operating condition, the speed of excavation is constantly reduced, and conversely, the method of increasing the speed of excavation is considered. The change speed of the excavation was given the minimum change requirement in consideration of the driver's review time, and the change was possible according to the excavation conditions. In order to use these conditions, the user-subroutine was considered separately, and the results show that the DEM model were able to analyze the excavation within the considered operating range.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.20 no.2
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• pp.433-452
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• 2018

The shield tunneling method can minimize surface settlements by preventing the deformation of tunnel face and tunnel intrados due to tunnel excavation. For this purpose, it is very important to control the operating conditions of shield TBM. The face pressure and backfill pressure for tail void grouting should be the most important and immediate measure not only to restrain surface settlement, but also to influence the effective stress and pore water pressure around the circumstance of tunnel during excavation. The reaction of the ground to the application of face pressure and backfill pressure relies on the stiffness and permeability of ground. Especially, the reaction of saturated clayey ground formations, which shows the time-dependent deformation, is different from the permeable ground. Hence, in this paper it was investigated how the TBM operating conditions, ground stiffness, and permeability impact on the surface settlement of saturated clayey ground. For this purpose, a series of parametric studies were carried out by means of the stress-pore water pressure coupled FE analysis. The results show that the settlement of soft clayey ground is divided into the immediate settlement and consolidation settlement. Especially, the consolidation settlement depends on the ground stiffness and permeability. In addition, the existence of critical face pressure and backfill pressure was identified. The face pressure and backfill pressure above the critical value may cause an unexpected increase in the ground settlement.