Analysis of the Tunnel Boring Machine Advancement on the Bologna-Florence Railway Link
- 1 Polytectnic University of Turin, Italy
Abstract
Problem statement: The high-velocity railway link between Bologna and Firenze (Italy) is today under construction and several tunnels have to be excavated for this purpose, some of these using TBMs. A small diameter tunnel, named Cunicolo ginori, was realized by TBM parallel to a large railway tunnel (Vaglia), at the distance of only 35 m. Approach: The Vaglia tunnel had been excavated by conventional methods and provided, thanks to a detailed survey and a systematic geotechnical monitoring (rock quality evaluation and convergence measurements) the characterization data of the crossed rock mass; moreover the TBM performance data in Cunicolo ginori were continuously monitored. A tunnel stretch, 587 m long, was recorded and the analysis of the data from both surveys allowed to correlate the geomechanical parameters of the rock-mass to the TBM performances (net advancement rate, thrust, specific energy). Results: Based on this large amount of data a new system to predict the net TBM advancement rate for a tunnel in rock masses of known geological and geomechanical characteristics was then developed. Also the Utilization Coefficient (CU) can be correlated to the rock quality Indices: The net advance rate and the utilization coefficient provide a mean to foresee the gross advancement rate and to evaluate the suitability of a machine for the excavation of a tunnel. Conclusion: In this study, an analysis had been carried out on about 587 m of a service tunnel, excavated by a TBM in a flysch formation.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.3844/ajeassp.2009.416.420
Copyright: © 2009 M. Cardu, P. Oreste and T. Cicala. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
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Keywords
- Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM)
- net advancement rate
- Utilization Coefficient (CU)