Research on the design method for uniform wear of shield cutters in sand–pebble strata

During shield tunneling in highly abrasive formations such as sand–pebble strata, nonuniform wear of shield cutters is inevitable due to the different cutting distances. Frequent downtimes and cutter replacements have become major obstacles to long-distance shield driving in sand–pebble strata. Based on the cutter wear characteristics in sand–pebble strata in Beijing, a design methodology for the cutterhead and cutters was established in this study to achieve uniform wear of all cutters by the principle of frictional wear. The applicability of the design method was verified through three-dimensional simulations using the engineering discrete element method. The results show that uniform wear of all cutters on the cutterhead could be achieved by installing different numbers of cutters on each trajectory radius and designing a curved spoke with a certain arch height according to the shield diameter. Under the uniform wear scheme, the cutter wear coefficient is greatly reduced, and the largest shield driving distance is increased by approximately 47% over the engineering scheme. The research results indicate that the problem of nonuniform cutter wear in shield excavation could be overcome, thereby providing guiding significance for theoretical innovation and construction of long-distance shield excavation in highly abrasive strata.