Method to avoid the structural interference of the thrust system of a shield tunneling machine

Several malfunctions of the shield tunneling machine (STM) caused by structural interference have been encountered in actual tunnel excavation. This paper is focusing on providing an effective method to avoid the structural interference based on making the reachable and the required workspaces of the thrust system match each other. The main structure of the thrust mechanism is analyzed, and coordinate systems are built up to describe the pose and workspace of the thrust mechanism. Constraint conditions are derived and the formulation of each constraint condition is carried out to facilitate the analysis of the reachable workspace of the thrust mechanism. Meanwhile, a reachable workspace determination algorithm is introduced based on interval analysis method. The mathematical model for determining the required workspace of the thrust mechanism is presented based on the analysis of the process when the STM excavates along a specific tunnel axis. Two applications are included to show how to avoid these problems by choosing reasonable parameters of the designed tunnel axis and the key structural parameters of the thrust mechanism based on workspace matching.

[1]  Huayong Yang,et al.  Automatic trajectory tracking control of shield tunneling machine under complex stratum working condition , 2012 .

[2]  Wei Guo,et al.  The scheme design for the earth pressure balance shield cutterhead structure , 2014 .

[3]  Kongshu Deng,et al.  Analysis of the carrying capacity of the propelling mechanism of tunneling machines , 2015 .

[4]  Kai Zhou,et al.  On the workspace of spatial parallel manipulator with multi-translational degrees of freedom , 2005 .

[5]  Zhende Hou,et al.  Modeling and prediction for the thrust on EPB TBMs under different geological conditions by considering mechanical decoupling , 2016 .

[6]  Lluís Ros,et al.  A Complete Method for Workspace Boundary Determination on General Structure Manipulators , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[7]  Yang Huayong,et al.  Electro-hydraulic proportional control of thrust system for shield tunneling machine , 2009 .

[8]  Jamal Rostami,et al.  Modeling of soil movement in the screw conveyor of the earth pressure balance machines (EPBM) using computational fluid dynamics , 2015 .

[9]  Zhende Hou,et al.  Mechanical characterization of the load distribution on the cutterhead–ground interface of shield tunneling machines , 2015 .

[10]  Yukinori Koyama,et al.  Present status and technology of shield tunneling method in Japan , 2003 .

[11]  Wei Sun,et al.  Workspace analysis of the Π-type thrust mechanism for designing a shield tunneling machine , 2016, 2016 12th IEEE/ASME International Conference on Mechatronic and Embedded Systems and Applications (MESA).

[12]  Ping Hu,et al.  Dynamic coordinated control of attitude correction for the shield tunneling based on load observer , 2012 .

[13]  Lai Xinmin,et al.  A stiffness-matching based evaluation approach for compliance of mechanical systems in shield tunneling machines , 2012 .

[14]  Qiuming Gong,et al.  Case studies of TBM tunneling performance in rock-soil interface mixed ground , 2013 .

[15]  Yuanyuan Li,et al.  Thrust distribution characteristics of thrust systems of shield machines based on spatial force ellipse model in mixed ground , 2016 .

[16]  Kongshu Deng,et al.  Layout optimization of non-equidistant arrangement for thrust systems in shield machines , 2015 .

[17]  Xu Chen,et al.  Research on natural frequency characteristics of thrust system for EPB machines , 2012 .

[18]  Jamal Rostami,et al.  Impact of Overcut on Interaction Between Shield and Ground in the Tunneling with a Double-shield TBM , 2015, Rock Mechanics and Rock Engineering.