Pages: 23-32

Abstract

Prediction of tunnel boring machine penetration rate is very important because it is highly related to many parameters such as rock mass quality, rock properties and etc. Penetration rate parameter is an important part of any mechanized drilling project. This coefficient is defined as the drilled interval divided by the machine operating time during a continuous drilling process and is a function of rock parameters, machine specifications, and operator. The accurate estimation of penetration rates for designing time, cost control, and the choice of drilling methods is required. In this paper, an estimate of the TBM penetration rate was made using strain energy and a drop modulus. The case study for this research is the Rabar-Kerman Water Transfer Tunnel Project. The best obtained equation for the final values including the strain energy ratio and the drop modulus is obtained as a logarithmic function. ROP=0.880 ln(Ψ⁄ω) +10.76 R2=0.73 The final ROP relationship is based on the amount of penetration in terms of mm / res and Ψ /ω, which is the ratio of strain energy to drop modulus. Also, according to the results, it is observed that by increasing the ratio Ψ / ω, the amount of penetration rate increased initially, and with more increase in the ratio of Ψ / ω the values of the penetration rate of the TBM device in the studied project were getting constant. Based on the results, the maximum value of Ψ /ω in the Rabar-Kerman Water Transfer Tunnel Project is 11.4 mm/rev.