Airflow inside tunnel boring machine: A numerical study and an experimental verification

Authors

  • H.R. Nezarat Faculty of Mining, Petroleum & Geophysics Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran
  • M. Nazari Faculty of Mechanical & Mechatronics Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran
  • Seyed M. E. Jalali Faculty of Mining, Petroleum & Geophysics Engineering, Shahrood University of Technology, Shahrood, Iran
Abstract:

Knowledge of the airflow distribution inside a Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) can create a safe working environment for workers and machinery. The airflow quality and the related mass flow rate in the ventilation system should be sufficient to dilute gases and remove dust inside the tunnel. In this work, airflow distribution in the single shield TBM tunnel was studied using computational fluid dynamics. The finite volume-based finite element method was used in the simulation based on the 3D complex geometry of TBM. In order to validate the numerical results, the air velocity inside the Chamshir tunnel was measured experimentally at different sections. With a length of 7050 m and a final diameter of 4.6 m, the Chamshir water transport tunnel is located in the south of Iran. The results obtained show that there is not enough airflow in 59.6% of the TBM space in the current working conditions. In other words, there are many dead zones from the control cabin to the end of gantry 6 in the backup system. Several applicable scenarios were studied to remove the dead zone area and optimize the airflow velocity by employing high capacity jet fan in the ventilation system. The results show that the dead zone volume can be decreased by about 5.21% by increasing the airflow rate of the jet fan.

Upgrade to premium to download articles

Sign up to access the full text

Already have an account?login

similar resources

Simulation of tunnel boring machine utilization: A case study

Utilization is one of the main managerial factors that is applied for construction process analysis well. It directly affects the project duration and construction costs. Therefore, a utilization study in tunneling projects is essential. In this work, the utilization of an earth pressure balance Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) in Tabriz urban railway project was studied using the Monte Carlo simula...

full text

the reliability of a tunnel boring machine

greater levels of complexity in tunnelling with tunnel boring machine (tbm) allow higher chances of failures that may increase the potential hazardous risks. this paper presents the results of a study on tbm reliability using risk analysis. machinery failure mode and effect analysis was applied to analyze the risks of a tbm using qs9000 and sae.j1739 recommendations. for this purpose, 48 failur...

full text

Tunnel boring machine positioning automation in tunnel construction

Purpose Tunnel construction using a tunnel boring machine (TBM) entails precise machine positioning and guidance in the underground space. In contrast to traditional laser-based machine guidance solutions, the proposed research aims to develop an automation alternative to facilitate TBMguidance and as-built tunnel alignment survey during tunnelling operations. Method A fully automated system is...

full text

finite element prediction on the machining stability of boring machine with experimental verification

the occurrence of chatter vibrations in boring operation has a great influence in improving workpiece dimensional accuracy, surface quality and production efficiency. in this paper instability analysis of machining process is presented by dynamic model of boring machine. this model, which consists of machine tool’s structure, is provided by finite element method and ansys software. the model is...

full text

Simulation Analysis of Rock Braking Mechanism of Tunnel Boring Machine

Original scientific paper Aiming at answering the questions of wear and failure of hob in the rock breaking process, the rock breaking process was simulated in different broken rock conditions by using finite element method. The relationship between normal force, lateral force, rolling force and time was obtained by rock breaking simulation analysis on the single edge disc cutter. The rock stre...

full text

Experimental and Numerical Investigation of Air Temperature Distribution inside a Car under Solar Load Condition

In this work both experimental and numerical analysis are carried out to investigate the effect of solar radiation on the cabin air temperature of Maruti Suzuki Celerio car parked for 90 min under solar load condition. The experimental and numerical analysis encompasses on temperature increment of air at various locations ins...

full text

My Resources

Save resource for easier access later

Save to my library Already added to my library

{@ msg_add @}


Journal title

volume 10  issue 3

pages  623- 632

publication date 2019-07-01

By following a journal you will be notified via email when a new issue of this journal is published.

Hosted on Doprax cloud platform doprax.com

copyright © 2015-2023