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Study on disintegrating characteristics and mechanism of cutterhead mud-caking in cohesive strata

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Abstract

Cutterhead mud-caking (CHMC) during shield tunneling in cohesive strata is a big problem affecting subway tunnel construction. In this paper, the effects of the type of soaking solution, initial moisture content, and dry–wet cycling on the disintegration characteristics of the mud cake were studied through indoor disintegration experiments. A new treatment method for CHMC is proposed. The results show that the mud cake sample disintegrates slowly in distilled water and cannot achieve complete disintegration. The overall disintegration curve shows an S-shaped change. Sodium silicate solution inhibited the disintegration of the mud cake, while sodium hexametaphosphate solution and oxalic acid solution promoted the disintegration of the mud cake. With the increase of solution concentration, the final amount of disintegration (FAD) and average disintegration rate (ADR) of the mud cake increase constantly, but the disintegration effect will reach saturation when the concentration reaches a certain value. The results also show that the FAD and ADR of the mud cake decrease with the increase of its initial moisture content, and dry–wet cycling has a significant promoting effect on the disintegration of the mud cake. Under dry–wet cycling, the increase in the amount of disintegration (AD) and disintegration rate of the mud cake mainly occurs in the first 3 cycles, the largest increase is due to the first dry–wet cycling. In practical engineering, a sodium hexametaphosphate wet-dry cycle can be used to treat the mud cake to reduce the treatment difficulty and improve the treatment effect.

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Acknowledgements

This study was financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (52078428) and the Sichuan Outstanding Young Science and Technology Talent Project (2020JDJQ0032). The authors are indebted to these agencies for their support.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Transportation Tunnel Engineering, Ministry of Education, Southwest Jiaotong University, Chengdu, 610031, China

    Yong Fang, Yuxiang Yao, Lifeng Wei, Pengcheng Liu & Bin Zhuo

  2. Shenzhen Metro Group Co., Ltd., 518000, Shenzhen, China

    Tiantian Song

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  1. Yong Fang
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  2. Yuxiang Yao
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  4. Lifeng Wei
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Correspondence to Yong Fang.

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Fang, Y., Yao, Y., Song, T. et al. Study on disintegrating characteristics and mechanism of cutterhead mud-caking in cohesive strata. Bull Eng Geol Environ 81, 510 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10064-022-03018-x

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