TUNNELLING MACHINE DATA ACQUISITION AND PROCESSING SYSTEM

The paper describes the instrumentation system installed on the 5 M diameter tunnelling machine used in trials carried out by the TRRL at Chinnor, Oxfordshire. The equipment was designed to collect, process and record information obtained from analogue and digital transducers monitoring machine performance in the rock-cutting process. The important elements of the system are described and examples of the printout show the output process. The printout automatically records high sampling rates for the forces on the rock-cutting tools and lower rates for variables of slower response, e.g. speed of rotation of the cutter head. /TRRL/