Earth pressure balance control of shield tunneling machine based on nonlinear least squares support vector machine model predictive control

Abstract

Background: Earth pressure balance shield machines are widely used in underground engineering. To prevent ground deformation even disastrous accidents, the earth pressure in soil chamber must be kept balance to that on excavation face during shield tunneling. Therefore, in this paper an advanced control strategy that a least squares support vector machine model-based predictive control scheme for earth pressure balance is developed. Methods: A prediction model is established to predict the earth pressure in chamber during the tunneling process by means of least squares support vector machine technology. On this basis, an optimization function is given which aims at minimizing the difference between the predicted earth pressure and the desired one. To obtain the optimal control actions, an improved ant colony system algorithm is used as rolling optimization for earth pressure balance control in real time. Results: Based on the field data the simulation experiments are performed. The results demonstrate that the method proposed is very effective to control earth pressure balance, and it has good stability. Conclusion: The screw conveyor speed and advance speed are the major factors affecting the earth pressure in chamber. The excavation face could be controlled balance better by adjusting the screw conveyor speed and advance speed.