• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.573-584
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• 2014

In this study, the variations of cutter acting forces depending on cutting conditions were examined to obtain basic data for roadheader cutting head design. The linear cutting tests were performed in the condition of different attack angles, penetration depths, cutter spacings by using a slim conical pick for the light cutting condition. Cutter acting forces were measured by 3-directional load cell under different test conditions, and the analysis for cutting performance were carried out after calculating average values of the measured results. It is confirmed that the optimal cutting condition for the mortar specimen is the 50 degree attack angle, the cutter spacing of 12 mm, the cutting depth of 9 mm which are obtained from the analysis results. In addition, 50 degree attack angle is more effective than 45 degree attack angle to design optimal specifications of cutting head.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.28 no.6
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• pp.651-669
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• 2018

This study suggests the prediction model to estimate the specific energy of a pick cutter using a gene expression programming (GEP) and particle swarm optimization (PSO). Estimating the performance of mechanical excavators is of crucial importance in early design stage of tunnelling projects, and the specific energy (SE) based approach serves as a standard performance prediction procedure that is applicable to all excavation machines. The purpose of this research, is to investigate the relationship between UCS and BTS, penetration depth, cut spacing, and SE. A total of 46 full-scale linear cutting test results using pick cutters and different values of depth of cut and cut spacing on various rock types was collected from the previous study for the analysis. The Mean Squared Error (MSE) associated with the conventional Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) method is more than two times larger than the MSE generated by GEP-PSO algorithm. The $R^2$ value associated with the GEP-PSO algorithm, is about 0.13 higher than the $R^2$ associated with MLR.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.32 no.6
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• pp.386-396
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• 2022

To analyze the influence of variables of roadheaders, the linear cutting testing data of pick cutter were collected from the former literatures. The input factors were set up as uniaxial compressive strength, cutting depth, cutting spacing, attack angle, skew angle, and output factors were determined as specific energy, average cutting force, maximum cutting force, average vertical force, and maximum vertical force. After composing a table of the design of experiment (DOE). The contribution level of each factor was calculated by analysis of variance (ANOVA). As a result, the factors having greatest influence on cutting force and specific energy were uniaxial compressive strength and cutting spacing.

• Journal of Biosystems Engineering
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• v.30 no.4 s.111
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• pp.220-228
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• 2005

This study was conducted to investigate the main factors that contain a rotating velocity ratio between wheel and conveyor belt, a tilt angle of conveyor belt and a rotating velocity of a dick cutter for mechanization of Chinese leek harvest. In the survey on the cultivation of Chinese leek, row spacing of 350 m and cutting height of 10 mm from the ground were set up for field tests. Test equipment was designed to cut, pick up and convey Chinese leek one row by one row. From the results of material tests, pick-up height of conveyor belt was set up at $60\~90m$ from the bottom, and the strain and stress at rupture of Chinese leek was 0.487 m/m and 0.01078 MPa. An elastic coefficient of the rubber (Neoprene) of conveyor belts was 1.1077 under the strain of 0.3 nym. from the results of field tests, the tilt angle of conveyor belt was the range of $25^{\circ}\~30^{\circ}$ under consideration far space of container, the velocity ratio between vehicle and conveying belt was 1 to 2.4~1.7 at 0.1~0.3 m/s of vehicle, and optimum rotating velocity of the disk cutter was 34.8 m/s or more under consideration for soil friction.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.585-597
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• 2014

In this study, the cutter acting forces were measured by 3-directional load cell at two different skew angles and various S/d ratios during a series of linear cutting tests using a slim conical pick. The analysis for cutting performance were carried out after calculating average values of the measured results. The increase of penetration depth results in the decrease of specific energy. And the variations of the cutter acting forces depending on penetration depth in the case of 6 degree skew angle were smaller than in the case of 0 degree skew angle. From this results, 6 degree skew angle is more effective than 0 degree skew angle in designing optimal specifications of cutting head. In addition, $F_c/F_n$ under the setting of 6 degree skew angle was smaller than under the setting of 0 degree skew angle. However, it should be considered that the increase of cutter acting force in the cutting direction accompanied the increase of driving force in the case of the setting for 6 degree skew angle.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.421-432
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• 2020

Cutting of rocks is very common encountered in tunneling and mining during underground excavations. A deep understanding of rock-tool interaction can promote industrial applications significantly. In this paper, a distinct element method based approach, PFC^3D, is adopted to simulate the rock cutting under different operation conditions (cutting velocity, depth of cut and rake angle) and with various tool geometries (tip angle, tip wear and tip shape). Simulation results showed that the cutting force and accumulated number of cracks increase with increasing cutting velocity, cut depth, tip angle and pick abrasion. The number of cracks and cutting force decrease with increasing negative rake angle and increase with increasing positive rake angle. The numerical approach can offer a better insight into the rock-tool interaction during the rock cutting process. The proposed numerical method can be used to assess the rock cuttability, to estimate the cutting performance, and to design the cutter head.

• Journal of Bio-Environment Control
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.123-130
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• 2014

Oriental melon (Cucumis melo var. makuwa) should be cultivated on the soil and be harvested. It is difficult to find because it is covered with leaves, and furthermore, it is very hard to grip it due to its climbing stems. This study developed and tested oriental melon harvesting robots such as an end-effector, manipulator and identification device. The end effector is divided into a gripper for harvest and a cutter for stems. In addition, it was designed to control the gripping and cutting forces so that the gripper could move four fingers at the same time and the cutter could move back and forth. The manipulator was designed to realize a 4-axis manipulator structure to combine orthogonal coordinate-type and shuttle-type manipulators with L-R type model to rotate based on the central axis. With regard to the identification device, oriental melon was identified using the primary identification global view camera device and secondary identification local view camera device and selected in the prediction of the sugar content or maturity. As a result of the performance test using this device, the average harvest time was 18.2 sec/ea, average pick-up rate was 91.4%, average damage rate was 8.2% and average sorting rate was 72.6%.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.40 no.9
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• pp.749-755
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• 2016

A new method for measuring the 3-axis cutting forces of a pick cutter by substituting costly 3-D load cells is proposed in this paper. The proposed cutting force measurement method is capable of estimating the 3-axis cutting forces through mechanical constraints using four single-axis compressive load cells and shoulder bolts. The feasibility of the proposed method was verified by finite element analysis, and the accuracy of the force measurement of the developed force measurement device was investigated by conducting linear rock cutting tests. The tests showed that the new cutting force measurement method is able to measure 3-axis cutting forces with a relative error of approximately 6%. These results imply that the new method could be a suitable alternative to conventional 3-D load cells. In addition, it will allow a significant reduction of approximately 20-30% in the costs required for measuring the cutting force when compared to conventional 3-D load cells.

• Tunnel and Underground Space
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.428-441
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• 2013

Nowadays, a roadheader as a mechanical excavator is in high demand, especially for mines under various conditions and tunnels where TBMs are inapplicable. However, the records of roadheaders in Korea are seldom reported. Moreover, the number of countries with their intrinsic design and manufacturing technologies of roadheaders is very limited. Therefore, this study aimed to analyse the excavation principles of roadheader as well as its key design parameters for its optimized selection and design. In addition, the database with 143 world-widely collected roadheader design data was built, and a few statistical correlations were derived from it. A schematic procedure for roadheader design based on the database was also proposed.