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Numerical study of rock-breaking performance of cutters in heterogeneous sand cobble ground

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Abstract

Further research into tunneling performance in heterogeneous sand cobble ground demands an accurate numerical model of actual formation. In this paper, the ground model composed of spherical sand and ellipsoidal cobble was constructed to study the rock-breaking performance by using the discrete element method. The shape and physical parameters of sand and cobble were obtained on the basis of field test data. Then, the ground model was constructed to simulate the rock-breaking process of the cutterhead. The results show that the center cutter has a high flat wear percentage. With the decrease in cobble content (CC), the cracks between cutters are not connected effectively, thereby resulting in lower rock-breaking quantity. Finally, the influences of CC on the optimal parameters and crack propagation were analyzed. The results indicate that the rock-breaking performance in the ground with a low CC can be improved by increasing penetration and reducing cutter spacing.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Ministry of Science and Technology Innovation Program (Grant no. 2018IM 030200), the National Key Research and Development Program of China (Grant no. SQ2019YFB170107), and the National Natural Foundation of China (Grant no. U1708255).

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Correspondence to Xiangwei Kong.

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Xiangwei Kong is a Professor at the School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation, Northeastern University, Shenyang, China. He received his Ph.D. in Material Processing Engineering from the Northeast University. His research interests include fault diagnosis of complex equipment, precision plastic forming, and numerical simulation.

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Guo, J., Kong, X., Cheng, L. et al. Numerical study of rock-breaking performance of cutters in heterogeneous sand cobble ground. J Mech Sci Technol 36, 3047–3058 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-022-0535-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12206-022-0535-6

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