Study on Wear Prediction of Shield Disc Cutter in Hard Rock and Its Application

Abstract

It is important to enable the prediction of disc cutter wear during shield tunnelling through hard rock because such wear is associated with project delays and increased costs. Based on a theoretical analysis of Archard's wear mechanism and Euler's rotation theorem, a displacement equation of rock-breaking point A on the disc cutter ring is studied, and then a new wear prediction model is established combined with the theoretical analysis of the disc cutter force and wear test. The cutter wear prediction model is verified by using the data of two cases, and the results reveal that the errors between measured and predicted values are less than 25%. The research results also show that abrasive wear is the main wear mechanism (approximately 88%). In addition, the influence of fatigue wear is very small, accounting for only approximately 2%, which can be ignored. Finally, the maximum tunneling distance of disc cutters under different installation radii and penetration is studied using the model, and the results can be used as references for optimizing shield tunneling parameters and predicting the disc cutter replacement time.