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Water saturation effects on the fracturing mechanism of sandstone excavating by TBM disc cutters

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Abstract

Water content is an important factor affecting the rock-breaking efficiency of tunnel boring machine (TBM) disc cutters. However, limited efforts have been made to study the fracturing mechanism of sandstone excavation by TBM disc cutters under varying water content conditions. To investigate the breakage behavior of water-soaked sandstone by TBM disc cutters, five sets of penetration tests on sandstone specimens with different water content levels were performed. The tests were conducted using a modified RYL-600 computer-controlled rock shear rheometer. An acoustic emission (AE) monitoring system was utilized throughout the entire process to track the AE activity of the specimens. The force–depth curves of the penetration process at various water content levels were investigated. The effects of water content on AE characteristics, rock fracture properties, and specific energy were analyzed. The results indicate that AE activity can be divided into three stages: quiet period, slow rise period, and active period. With increasing water content, peak penetration force, consumed energy, and specific energy decrease gradually, while chip volume increases. Water promotes mutual penetration of surface and internal cracks of the specimen, resulting in the formation of larger chip volumes. These findings provide theoretical guidance for designing and improving TBM cutter head parameters in water-rich soft rock formations.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Hunan Province, China (2024JJ6383; 2023JJ40540; 2022JJ40371), the Outstanding Youth Project of Hunan Provincial Education Department (23B0444; 23B0423), the Young Scholars Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (42207235), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (2022M722479). The authors are grateful to the editor’s and the anonymous reviewers' valuable comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Resources Environment and Safety Engineering, University of South China, Hengyang, 421001, China

    Qibin Lin, Shenchen Zhang, He Liu & Zuliang Shao

  2. Key Laboratory of Safety for Geotechnical and Structural Engineering of Hubei Province, School of Civil Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan, 430072, China

    He Liu

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  1. Qibin Lin
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Correspondence to He Liu or Zuliang Shao.

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Lin, Q., Zhang, S., Liu, H. et al. Water saturation effects on the fracturing mechanism of sandstone excavating by TBM disc cutters. Arch. Civ. Mech. Eng. 24, 154 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s43452-024-00964-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s43452-024-00964-z

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