A New Evaluation Method for the Uniaxial Compressive Strength ahead of the Tunnel Face Based on the Driving Data and Specification Parameters of TBM

Abstract

Uniaxial compressive strength (UCS) is a very important fundamental mechanical parameter for TBM construction. In this work, a predictive model of UCS was proposed according to the TBM parameters including torque, penetration, cutter number, and cutter diameter. The parameter of the new proposed model was established by fourteen existed TBM tunnels’ construction data. To describe the relationships of UCS with PLSI of the Murree tertiary hard rocks, regression analyses have been conducted and a fitting equation with high-prediction performance was developed. Validation from the data of Neelum–Jhelum (NJ) TBM diversion tunnel were carried out. The absolute errors between predictive UCS and experimental UCS were presented. Through comparison, it can be concluded that the proposed calculation equation of UCS has a high accuracy for a certain rock type with UCS from 50 MPa to 200 MPa. For special hard rock or soft rock, a new calculation equation between UCS and TBM parameters should be studied furthermore.