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Experimental study on the stratum applicability and mechanisms of bubble-slurry for earth pressure balance shields

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Abstract

Soil conditioning is essential for addressing the stratum applicability problem of earth pressure balance (EPB) shields. Under high water pressures, EPB shields spew water and soil when excavating coarse-grained strata. Typically, foam combined with polymers and slurry is used to solve spewing. However, in current techniques, slurry, foam, and the other agents are mixed with soil separately, their synergistic effect is seldom realized. In this study, an anionic surfactant was used to foam in bentonite slurry to form bubble–slurry to maximize the synergy between bubbles and slurry. The slump, volume stability, and permeability test of bubble–slurry-conditioned sand was conducted to examine the conditioning effect, and the stratum applicability of bubble–slurry was determined from the perspective of permeability. It was found that the conditioning effect of bubble–slurry in coarse gravel soil was excellent and could expand the applicability of EPB shields. The main stabilization mechanism of bubble–slurry is that bentonite particles provide a space barrier for bubbles. And three seepage modes of bubble–slurry-conditioned sand were innovatively defined, and the occurrence conditions of the three seepage modes were analyzed according to the permeability coefficient of sand, initial dynamic shear force of bubble–slurry, and hydraulic gradient.

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Acknowledgements

This study was funded by National Key R&D Program of China (2022YFC3202705), the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (B200203081), and the Postgraduate Research and Practice Innovation Program of Jiangsu Province (KYCX20_0436).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Lu Wang & Yongjin Qian

  2. Key Laboratory of Ministry of Education for Geomechanics and Embankment Engineering, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Lu Wang & Yongjin Qian

  3. College of Environment, Hohai University, Nanjing, 210098, China

    Wei Zhu

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  1. Lu Wang
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Correspondence to Wei Zhu.

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Wang, L., Zhu, W. & Qian, Y. Experimental study on the stratum applicability and mechanisms of bubble-slurry for earth pressure balance shields. Front. Struct. Civ. Eng. 17, 1387–1399 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-023-0005-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11709-023-0005-y

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