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TBM Performance Analysis in Pyroclastic Rocks: A Case History of Karaj Water Conveyance Tunnel

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Abstract

Karaj Water Conveyance Tunnel (KWCT) is 30-km long and has been designed for transferring 16 m3/s of water from Amir-Kabir dam to northwest of Tehran. Lot No. 1 of this long tunnel, with a length of 16 km, is under construction with a double shield TBM and currently about 8.7 km of the tunnel has been excavated/lined. This paper will offer an overview of the project, concentrating on the TBM operation and will review the results of field performance of the machine. In addition to analysis of the available data including geological and geotechnical information and machine operational parameters, actual penetration and advance rates will be compared to the estimated machine performance using prediction models, such as CSM, NTNU and QTBM. Also, results of analysis to correlate TBM performance parameters to rock mass characteristics will be discussed. This involves statistical analysis of the available data to develop new empirical methods. The preliminary results of this study revealed that the available prediction models need some corrections or modifications to produce a more accurate prediction in geological conditions of this particular project.

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Acknowledgments

Authors wish to thank SCE Company, especially Mr. Gh. Shamsi and his colleagues in the Tunneling Division for their help in the collection of required data. We are also grateful to the reviewers for their careful reading of our manuscript and their many helpful comments.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Engineering Geology, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

    J. Hassanpour & Mashalah Khamehchiyan

  2. Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, USA

    J. Rostami

  3. Department of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Trondheim, Norway

    A. Bruland

  4. SCE Company, Tehran, Iran

    H. R. Tavakoli

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  1. J. Hassanpour
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  2. J. Rostami
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  3. Mashalah Khamehchiyan
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  4. A. Bruland
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  5. H. R. Tavakoli
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Correspondence to Mashalah Khamehchiyan.

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Hassanpour, J., Rostami, J., Khamehchiyan, M. et al. TBM Performance Analysis in Pyroclastic Rocks: A Case History of Karaj Water Conveyance Tunnel. Rock Mech Rock Eng 43, 427–445 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-009-0060-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00603-009-0060-2

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