A Prediction Method for TBM Cutterhead Dynamic Tunneling Performance under Typical Composite Geological Conditions

The cutterhead system is a core component of TBM equipment, which works in the extremely severe environment, and the strong impact loads result in severe vibration, crack, damage failure and other engineering failures. Accordingly, the key for cutterhead system structure design and parameter matching is to evaluate and predict cutterhead tunneling performance reasonably. In this paper, a prediction method for TBM cutterhead dynamic tunneling performance is proposed under the typical composite geological conditions, based on the CSM model of multi-cutters and cutter loads field test data. Then an actual TBM cutterhead of a water conservancy project is taken as an example, a spatial three-dimensional separation zone model for cutterhead tunneling is established under the typical geological condition, and the parameters influence rules of cutterhead tunneling performance are analyzed. The results show that, the cutterhead loads and specific energy change rules with different parameters are basically similar. Moreover, under the condition of penetration p=10mm, the cutterhead bending moment coefficient of variation magnitude exceeds 20%, which is the maximum, and the normal cutter spacing optimal value is 95mm. Also, when the normal cutter spacing is kept constant in 85mm, the penetration has a greater influence on the torque and specific energy coefficient of variations, which is increased from 2mm to 10mm, and the two indexes decrease by about 73%. It is indicated that proper increase of penetration is beneficial to reduce the vibration fluctuation degree of torque and specific energy. The proposed method of TBM cutterhead dynamic tunneling performance and the analysis results can provide theoretical basis and design reference for TBM cutterhead layout and tunneling parameters matching.