Wei Sun , Junzhou Huo*, Haifeng Zhao, Yu Zhao
The Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology, vol. 25, no. 2, pp.415-427, 2011

Abstract : In rock TBM design the disc cutters’ layout design of the full-face rock tunnel boring machine (TBM) is one of the key technologies. However, there are few published papers in literatures for various reasons. In this paper, based on the engineering technical requirements and the corresponding cutter head’s structure design requirements, a nonlinear multi-objective disc cutters’ layout mathematical model with complex constraints and the corresponding multi-stage solution strategy are presented, in which the whole disc cutters’ layout design process is decomposed into the disc cutters’ spacing design and the disc cutters’ plane layout design. A numerical simulation method based on the FEM theory is adopted to simulate the rock chipping process induced by three TBM disc cutters to determine the optimal cutter spacing. And a cooperative coevolutionary genetic algorithm (CCGA) is adopted to solve the disc cutters’ plane layout design problem. Finally, a disc cutters’ layout design instance of the TBM is presented to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method. The computational results show that the proposed method can be used to solve the disc cutters’ layout design problem of the TBM and provide various layout schemes within short running times for the engineers to choose from.

Keyword : Full-face tunnel boring machine; Disc cutters’ layout; Coevolutionary algorithm; Spacing