Rock deformation equations and application to the study on slantingly installed disc cutter

Abstract

At present the mechanical model of the interaction between a disc cutter and rock mainly concerns indentation experiment, linear cutting experiment and tunnel boring machine (TBM) on-site data. This is not in line with the actual rock-breaking movement of the disc cutter and impedes to some extent the research on the rock-breaking mechanism, wear mechanism and design theory. Therefore, our study focuses on the interaction between the slantingly installed disc cutter and rock, developing a model in accordance with the actual rock-breaking movement. Displacement equations are established through an analysis of the velocity vector at the rock-breaking point of the disc cutter blade; the functional relationship between the displacement parameters at the rock-breaking point and its rectangular coordinates is established through an analysis of micro-displacement vectors at the rock-breaking point, thus leading to the geometric equations of rock deformation caused by the slantingly installed disc cutter. Considering the basically linear relationship between the cutting force of disc cutters and the rock deformation before and after the leap break of rock, we express the constitutive relations of rock deformation as generalized Hooke’s law and analyze the effect of the slanting installation angle of disc cutters on the rock-breaking force. This will, as we hope, make groundbreaking contributions to the development of the design theory and installation practice of TBM.