Study on Forming Technology of TBM Disc Cutter Ring

Abstract

The tunnels and underground projects bring an unprecedented development of hard rock tunneling technology. The forming process and material properties of the 20 inch disc cutter ring has been studied by the finite element simulation and test methods. The effects of blank size, blank heating temperature, mold preheating temperature and friction coefficient on the forming load, minimum surface temperature and blank deformation uniformity of 20 inch cutter ring were analyzed. The results show the optimum combination of the forming process of the 20 inch disc cutter ring is when the blank height is 90 mm, the blank heating temperature is 1200 °C, the preheating temperature is 280 °C, and the friction coefficient is 0.2. Compression test and hardness test were carried out on the edge material of the cutter ring. The test results show that when the temperature exceeds 600 °C, the hardness and compressive strength of the cutter ring material will drop sharply. Therefore, the TBM should be properly cooled during construction. The research results in this paper can provide a basis for the optimization of TBM disc cutter ring processing technology and engineering applications.