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A TBM Cutter Life Prediction Method Based on Rock Mass Classification

  • Tunnel Engineering
  • Published:
KSCE Journal of Civil Engineering Aims and scope

Abstract

Cutter life is an important economical index for tunnel boring machines (TBM) excavation, and its prediction is widely concerned. This paper introduces a method for predicting cutter life on the basis of statistics and regression. Traditional researches only evaluate the average mileage or time interval of each cutter change. Differently, the proposed method can accurately predict the mileage position of each cutter relatively, on the premise of knowing the installment radius of each cutter and the rock properties along the tunnel. In this procedure, the influence of the rock classification and rock properties of each cutter passing area on their passing distance is obtained by linear regression. For proposing and verifying the prediction method, totally 1,200 records of cutter changing caused by normal cutter wear are collected from the 4th Section of Water Supply Project from Songhua River. Among them, randomly selected 920 samples are used to determine the regression coefficients involved in the method. The method is verified by the rest 280 samples, and a reliable predicted result is obtained (MAPE = 27%, and R2 = 0.69).

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank China Railway Tunnel Stock Company Limited and Jilin Province Water Resource and Hydropower Consultative Company of P.R. CHINA for sharing their experiences of data gathering efforts in the field. This research was supported by the National Program of the Key Basic Research Project of China (973 Program) (No. 2015CB058101), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. 51739007), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (No. 2016YFC0401805), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC) (No. U1806226), the Key Research and Development Program of Shandong Province (No. 2016ZDJS02A01).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geotechnical and Structural Engineering Research Center, Shandong University, Shandong, 250061, China

    Ruirui Wang, Yaxu Wang, Guangzu Zhao & Lichao Nie

  2. China Railway Engineering Equipment Group, Henan, 450016, China

    Jianbin Li & Liujie Jing

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  1. Ruirui Wang
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  2. Yaxu Wang
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  3. Jianbin Li
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  4. Liujie Jing
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  5. Guangzu Zhao
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  6. Lichao Nie
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Correspondence to Lichao Nie.

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Wang, R., Wang, Y., Li, J. et al. A TBM Cutter Life Prediction Method Based on Rock Mass Classification. KSCE J Civ Eng 24, 2794–2807 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-020-1511-2

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