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Investigation of the Dynamic Characteristics of Muck during EPB Shield Tunnelling in a Full Chamber Model Using a CFD Method

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

Abstract

For the safety and efficiency of earth pressure balance (EPB) shield tunnelling, the dynamic characteristics of the muck in the excavation chamber and the screw conveyor should be considered. However, the velocity and pressure distribution of the muck in the EPB shield, reflecting muck flowability and face stability, are rarely observed at the jobsite. Therefore, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model with a modified inlet boundary was established to investigate the muck characteristics in the chamber and the screw conveyor during tunnelling in a full chamber mode. A compressible Bingham model was adapted to describe the muck compressibility and rheology. The time-dependent tunnelling parameters obtained from the simulation excellently matched the field-measured data. The simulation results show the nonuniform velocity distribution of the muck at the excavation face and the low-velocity zones where clogging potentially occurs. The muck pressure reaches a peak at the excavation face and then decreases along the cutterhead openings, chamber and screw conveyor for inflow. The simulation also captures the pressure imbalance at the cutterhead and bulkhead, which may destabilize the excavation face. The proposed discharge efficiency is 56.7% in the simulated condition, indicating that tunnelling with these muck properties has no risk of muck spewing.

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Abbreviations

a :

Thickness of the screw blade

D :

Inner diameter of the conveyor cylinder

d :

Diameter of the screw rod

K 0 :

Reference bulk modulus at atmospheric pressure

n :

Density exponent

n :

Rotation speed of the screw

p :

Pressure

p 0 :

Atmospheric pressure

p̅ b :

Average pressure on the bulkhead

p̅ e :

Average pressure at the excavation face

Q̅ :

Average simulated muck mass flow rate at the outlet

Q p :

Practical mass flow rate

Q t :

Theoretical mass flow rate

s :

Screw pitch

α :

Pressure transmission coefficient

γ c :

Critical shear rate

η :

Discharge efficiency

μ :

Plastic viscosity

μ 0 :

Plastic viscosity at atmospheric pressure

ρ :

Density

ρ 0 :

Reference density at atmospheric pressure

ρ o :

Muck density at the outlet

ρ r,min :

Minimum density ratio limit

ρ r,max :

Maximum density ratio limit

τ y :

Yield stress

τ y0 :

Yield stress at atmospheric pressure

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Acknowledgments

The financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 52022112) and the Hunan Provincial Innovation Foundation for Postgraduate, China (No. 2020zzts152) are acknowledged and appreciated.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Civil Engineering, Central South University, Changsha, 410075, China

    Jiazheng Zhong, Shuying Wang & Zhengri Liu

  2. CCCC Second Harbor Engineering Company Ltd., Wuhan, 430012, China

    Pengfei Liu

  3. School of Transportation, Southeast University, Nanjing, 211189, China

    Tao Xu

Authors
  1. Jiazheng Zhong
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  2. Shuying Wang
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  3. Pengfei Liu
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  4. Zhengri Liu
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Correspondence to Shuying Wang.

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Zhong, J., Wang, S., Liu, P. et al. Investigation of the Dynamic Characteristics of Muck during EPB Shield Tunnelling in a Full Chamber Model Using a CFD Method. KSCE J Civ Eng 26, 4103–4116 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-022-1300-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12205-022-1300-1

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