EDEM Research Spotlight- Numerical Study of Face Plate-Type Earth Pressure Balance Shield Tunnel Boring Machine with Discrete Element Method
Altair Employee- RESEARCHER
- Byungkwan Park
- INSTITUTE
- University of Science & Technology (UST), Korea
- DEPARTMENT
- University of Science & Technology (UST), Korea
- SUPERVISOR
- Chulho Lee
- TIMELINE
- 04/09/2017 - 30/09/2017
The Discrete Element Method (DEM) has been widely used in civil engineering as well as various industrial fields to simulate granular materials. In this study, DEM was adopted to predict the performance of a face plate-type earth pressure balance (EPB) shield tunnel boring machine (TBM). An analysis of the TBM excavation performance was conducted according to two pre-defined excavation conditions with the different rotation speeds per minute (RPM) of the cutter-head. The TBM model which was used in this study has a 6.64 m of diameter and six spokes. Also, 37 precutters and 98 scrapers at an each spoke were modelled with a real-scale specification. From the analysis, compressive forces at the cutter-head face, shield and cutting tools, resistant torques at the cutter-head face, muck discharge rate and accumulated muck discharge by the screw auger were measured and compared. SPONSOR - Korea Institute of Civil Engineering and Building Technology PUBLICATIONS - J. Korean Geosynthetics Society Vol.16 No.4 December. 2017 pp. 163 ~ 176 
Fig. 1. Particle compressive force of plate-type TBM 
Fig. 2. Compressive force of plate-type TBM 
Fig. 3. Simulation of compressive force to the plate-type TBM drilling 
Fig. 4. Simulation of plate-type compressive force
Vid. 1. Particle compressive force of plate-type TBM
Vid. 2. Compressive force of plate-type TBM
EDEM is very easy-to-use software. It is convenient as it can implement many materials. In addition, we were able to check the ease of use of the equipment because we could provide the motion conditions of the geometry.