Development and application of cutterhead vibration monitoring system for TBM tunnelling

Abstract

During TBM tunnelling, the rock breaking by cutters usually induces vibration. The cutterhead vibration is composed of all cutter vibrations. On the one hand, cutterhead vibration directly affects the life of the cutter, cutterhead and main gear. On the other hand, cutterhead vibration reflects the TBM excavation performance. In this paper, a cutterhead vibration monitoring system for TBM tunnelling was developed. The system consisted of the data acquisition module, communication and control module, as well as data processing and display module. Acceleration sensor, gyroscope and clock chip were integrated into a sensor board to acquire triaxial vibration data, cutterhead rotating status and acquisition time. The installation structure with anti-hit and water-proof functions was designed to ensure the stable operation of the system. Three types of data acquisition modes were proposed to meet the different monitoring scenarios. The system was applied in a TBM tunnelling project. Based on the normal monitored data in TBM tunnelling and penetration tests data, the differences in amplitude and frequency of triaxial vibration, as well as the effect of geological conditions and operating parameters on cutterhead vibration characteristics were analyzed. The engineering application showed that this system can reflect the changes of the geological conditions and operating parameters, providing guidance for the TBM tunnelling.