Tunnel Boring Machine Slurry System Measure Performance

Tunnel Boring Machine Slurry System Measure Performance

Tunnel boring machine slurry system has a good effect on the mud produced in the shield construction. KD series TBM slurry system is the module system structure.

Tunnel boring machine slurry system is designed to handle the various muds used in common shield construction techniques.It is advisable to check and measure the performance of tunnel boring machine separations they are brought into use. These are important to know the penetrations and also the cutter cost.

Kosun Tunnel boring machine slurry system
Tunnel boring machine slurry system

It is also necessary to compare its economics with drilling and blasting technique.  Various factors contributes to the performance of tunnel boring machine separations –
–    Intact rock property like the tensile strength of the rock and uniaxial compressive strength.
–    Property of rock mass- in cases of foliated or bedded ground, direction of foliation guides the performance of tunnel boring machine separations.
–    Cutter geometry- cutter on the cutter head of the machine transmit the energy generated by the engine into the earth causing fragmentation. Thus it is important that the shape and angle of the cutter is adjusted so that adequate amount of energy is transferred and desirable penetration is attained in the ground.
–    Cutting geometry
–    Machine specifications
–    Voltage
–    Penetration and advancement rate
Performance of tunnel boring machine separation system can be calculated based on the voltage provided by the mine power distribution system. A basic computer load flow program is used to calculate the voltage.

Calculated voltage and measured voltages are then compared. Torque output is calculated with help this voltage input. Curve of speed horsepower versus current is drawn and compared to motor test data.

This results are then used to make adjustments in simplified motor model. With these information a torque verse distance curve can be made which will help to summarize the tunnel boring machine separations performance. By this way, the effects of the change in transformer taps, source of voltage, cable size and various other factors can be evaluated.

Penetration and advancement rates are essential to evaluate the performance of the TBM slurry separation system . Penetration rate is excavated distance during the excavation phase divided by the time. Advancement rate is the actual excavating distance to the total time which also accounts the total downtime of the machine maintenance, failure of the tunnel and machine breakdown.