Geotechnical Engineering

Visualization and calculation models for TBM face support pressure in soft ground

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  • 1. Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai 200092, China; 2. State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering, China University of Mining and Technology, Xuzhou, Jiangsu 221116, China

Received date: 2015-07-15

  Online published: 2018-06-14

Supported by

Project supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) (Grant No.2014CB046905), the National Science Foundation of China (Grant No.41372276) and the State Key Laboratory for Geomechanics and Deep Underground Engineering (Grant No.SKLGDUEK1303).

Abstract

The tunnel boring machine (TBM) tunnelling has been successfully applied worldwide in recent years, and TBMs provide continuous support to the tunnel face by using the freshly-excavated wet soil or slurry which completely fills up the work chamber under pressure. Under extremely unfavorable geological and hydrogeological conditions, however, face instabilities may occur. In fact, the excavation face support pressure for TBM in soft ground determines the construction safety and surface deformation. A visual platform for calculating the excavation face support pressure conveniently, TBM Studio, is constructed by computer programming based on the suggested models. In this visual platform, the influence of stratified soils can be considered. Furthermore, a comparison of the results of Alaskan way tunnel and Qianjiang tunnel by different calculation models is done, the differences between different models are revealed. In addition, the effects of the stratified soil layers’ self-stability on excavation face stability in complex strata are also discussed, demonstrating that it is crucial for determining quantitatively the relationships between the effective support pressure required and the hydraulic head in the soft ground.

Cite this article

ZHANG Zi-xin , ZHANG Fan , . Visualization and calculation models for TBM face support pressure in soft ground[J]. Rock and Soil Mechanics, 2015 , 36(11) : 3193 -3200 . DOI: 10.16285/j.rsm.2015.11.021

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