Determining Optimal Thrust Force of EPB Shield Machine by Analytical Solution   Zichang Shangguan School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian 116023, P R China; Institute of Civil Engineering, Dalian Fishery University, Dalian 116023, P R China e-mail: Shangguan002@sina.vip.com Shouju Li Professor, State Key Laboratory of Structural Analysis for Industrial Equipment, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, 116024, China e-mail: Lishouju@dlut.edu.cn Maotian Luan Professor, School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Dalian University of Technology, Dalian, China e-mail: mtluan@dlut.edu.cn
			ABSTRACT

Earth pressure balanced TBM provides active support for working face by means of a pressurized earth paste with the consistency of a highly viscous liquid. The earth paste is produced from the excavated soil mixed with additives. The supporting pressure is achieved through control of the incoming and outgoing materials in the chamber. The soil-structure interaction in shield tunneling is investigated by analytical solution. The mechanism of working face stability is analyzed and the reasonable face earth pressure for EPB shield is deduced according to the active and passive earth pressure principles. The optimal thrust fore for EPB shield is proposed in different soil parameter and shield size cases. The comparison of the practical thrust forces of EPB shields with computed ones shows that the proposed computing procedure for optimal thrust fore for EPB shield can agree well with practical engineering examples. The effectiveness of the proposed computing procedure is validated.

Keywords: Analytical solution; soil-structure interaction; shield tunneling; Earth pressure balanced TBM; reasonable face earth pressure; optimal thrust force.

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