Tunnel-boring machines are the main equipment for the construction of trenchless underground engineering projects such as rail transit, municipal engineering, railway tunnels, etc. This paper reviews various tunnel boring machine types, cutting tools, and machine performance through several case studies. It was found that these machines are highly efficient in various projects associated with hydropower, sewerage, water supply, machination, and transportation.

1. CASE STUDY ON TUNNEL
BORING MACHINE AND
PILING MACHINE
1

2. Contents
2
INTRODUCTION
CUTTING ROLLS
CUTTER HEADS
GRIPPER
MACHINETECHNOLOGY OF TBM
•SLURRY SHIELD
•MIX SHIELD
•SINGLE SHIELD TBM
•DOUBLE SHOELD TBM
CASE STUDY ON TBM PERFORMANCE
TYPES OF PILING MACHINE
•DISEL IMPACT HAMMER
•STEAM IMPACT HAMMER
•VIBRATORY HAMMER
CASE STUDY ON PILING MACHINE
CONCLUTION
REFERENCE

3. INTRODUCTION
 Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) also known as
‘MOLE’.
 It is used to excavate tunnels with a circular
cross section
 It can bore through anything from hard rock to
sand.
 Different types of TBMs are used for different
geo technology.
 Used as an alternative to drilling and blasting
methods and conventional 'hand mining' in soil
 Limits the disturbance to the surrounding
ground and produces a smooth tunnel wall.
 Suitable to use in heavily urbanized areas.
Tunnel Boring Machine [1]
3

4. • Piling is a type of Foundation which
is defined as a column supported
type of foundation.
• It may be made of Timber, Concrete,
Steel, or combination of any of them.
• Pile foundation is adopted when the
loose soil extends to a great depth.
• The load is transmitted by the piles
to the hard below or it is resisted by
the friction developed on the sides of
piles.
• Piling process involves lifting and
holding the pile into position and
driving until it stops due to hard or
reaches to a specified depth.
4
Piling Machine [2]

5.  Cutting rolls are used to tear of
the soil and rock from tunnel face.
 They are mounted on the cutting
heads.
 Different types of materials are
used for different ground
condition.
 They are placed radically, so as to
have maximum efficiency.
 They can revolve themselves in
full 360 degree.
 They can be replaced periodically.
CUTTING ROLLS
5
Cutting Rolls[3]

6. CUTTERHEADS
 Cutter heads is the part of the
TBM which faces the ground to
be tunneled.
 It will revolve in speed of 1 to 10
rpm
 Cutting rolls and cutting blades
are mounted here.
 Cutter head can revolve 360
degree.
6
Cutter head of a TBM [4]

7. GRIPPER
 Grippers are also called
supporting arms of TBMs.
 All TBMs have at least a pair of
grippers.
 Grippers provide a radial thrust to
the tunnel walls with the help of
hydraulic press.
 Grippers are used only when
cutter head moves forward
against the tunnel face.
7
Gripper [5]

8. MACHINETECHNOLOGY OF TBM
 For tunneling project different kind of TBMs are used.
 Type of TBM varies with ground condition.
 Soft ground type
 Slurry shield
 Mix shield
• Hard ground type
 Single shield TBM
 Double shield TBM
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9. SLURRYSHIELD
• Slurry shields are TBM fitted with a
full face cutter head which provides
face support by pressurizing boring
fluid inside the cutter head chamber.
• These machines are most suited for
tunnels through unstable material
subjected to high groundwater pressure.
• Slurry shields are mainly suitable for
excavation in sand and gravels with
silts.
• Soils are mixed with betonies slurry,
which must be removed from the
tunnel through a system of slurry tubes
that exit the tunnel.
• Large slurry separation plants are
needed on the surface for this process,
which separate the dirt from the slurry
so it can be recycled back into the
tunnel.[8]
9
Slurry Shield TBM [6]

10. MIXSHIELD
 The Mix Shield technology developed
by Herrenknecht is an advance on
conventional slurry technology.
 The support pressure in the excavation
chamber is precisely managed using
an automatically controlled air
cushion.
 This means that heterogeneous
geologies and high water pressures of
more than 15 bar can be controlled
safely even with very large excavation
diameters.
 Mix Shields often use a jaw crusher
for tunneling purpose, which is
positioned in front of the intake
screen.
10
Mix Shield TBM [7]

11. SINGLE SHIELD TBM
 Single shield have no shield as
that of in soft ground type.
 Excavation is done by cutter rolls
transferred through openings in
the cutter head to a belt conveyor,
and then to muck cars or conveyor
belt.
 There is no excavation chambers
as chips are of solid and not as
slurry.
 More smoother tunnel walls can
be created using this machine .
11
Single Shield TBM [8]

12. DOUBLESHIELDTBM
 These are the most technically sophisticated tunnel boring machines in
use.
 This type of machine is ideally suited for drilling long tunnels in hard
rock where geological fault zones occur.
 Flexible use in all kinds of rock.
12
Double
Shield
TBM
[9]

13. CASE STUDY ON TBM PERFORMANCE
 To improve the water supply to Vakola, a 12.24 km long passage
between Maroshi and Ruparel College was uncovered by a Tunnel
exhausting machine.
 The tunnel is separated into three segments, i.e.Maroshi–Vakola(5.834
km long), Vakola–Mahim(4.549 km), and Mahim–Ruparel
College(1.859 km).
13
Tunnel
Between
Maroshi to
Ruparel
[10]

14.  Studies indicated that in Deccan traps, variations in rock types, flow
contacts, rock strength, and volumetric joint amount with presence of
weak zones have predominantly affected the penetration rate and
stability of tunnels.
 On the basis of a large number of case studies, it concluded that with
the decrease of joint spacing, the TBM penetration increases distinctly.
 The maximum penetration rate was recorded for an angle of 60°.
 It was also noted that with the increase of joint spacing, the effect of
joint orientation decreases.
14

15. TYPES OF PILING MACHINE
There are several types of piling machine.
 Diesel Impact Hammer
 Steam Impact Hammer
 Vibratory Hammer
15

16. DIESEL IMPACT HAMMER
 Rapid controlled explosions can be
produced by the diesel hammer.
 The explosions raise a ram which is
used to drive the pile into the ground.
 Although the ram is smaller than the
weight used in the drop hammer the
increased frequency of the blows can
make up for this inefficiency.
 This type of hammer is most suitable
for driving piles through non-
cohesive granular soils where the
majority of the resistance is from end
bearing.
16
Diesel Impact Hammer [11]

17. STEAM IMPACT HAMMER
 The Steam Impact Hammer is the
most commonly used method of
insertion of displacement piles
 A weight approximately half that of
the pile is raised a suitable distance in
a guide and released to strike the pile
head .
 When driving a hollow pile tube the
weight usually acts on a plug at the
top of the pile tube, thus reducing any
excess stress along the length of the
tube during insertion.
 These are mechanically driven by
steam, by compressed air or
hydraulically.
17
Steam Impact Hammer [12]

18. VIBRATORY HAMMER
 Vibratory Hammer can prove to be
very effective in driving piles through
non cohesive granular soils.
 The vibration of the pile excites the soil
grains adjacent to the pile making the
soil almost free flowing thus
significantly reducing friction along the
pile shaft.
 The vibration can be produced by
electrically powered contra-rotating
eccentric masses attached to the pile
head usually acting at a frequency of
about 20-40 Hz.
 If this frequency is increased to around
100 Hz it can set up a longitudinal
resonance in the pile and penetration
rates can approach up to 20 m/min in
moderately dense granular soils.
18
Vibratory Hammer [13]

19. CASE STUDY ON PILING MACHINE
• Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine is located in south-east of Iran and is the largest
open pit mine of Iran.
• The annual production of the mine is 14 million tons.
• In this research, the failure data of all drilling machines (A, B, C and D) in
Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine have been collected over a period of 2 years.
• For identification of critical subsystem of any machines, Pareto analysis was
done on the available data. Regarding to the figure(next page), electrical
system of machines A and C as well the hydraulic subsystem of machines B
and D, have the highest percent of failures.
• Also, drilling system of machines A and B respectively with 7% and 5% of all
of failures are the best subsystems.
• Similarly, transmission system with 8% and pneumatics system with only 3%
of total failures have the lowest failure in machines C and D.
• In this paper, the Easy fit and MS Excel software were used for data analyzing
and finding the best-fit distributions and parameters.
19

20. 20
Fig. Pareto analysis of drilling machines’ subsystems in Sarcheshmeh Copper Mine[14]

21. CONCLUSION
• The development of the boring machine has an upset history for sure, it
had altered the production of spaces under our urban areas permitting
metro frameworks, water, and sewage frameworks, and underground
link organizations.
• The impact of joint direction on the TBM entrance rate was broadly
seen in the burrowing projects .
• Attributable to various benefits, piles are increasingly more generally
applied for street framework and development purposes.
• Knowing the extent of work, one can build up the heaviness of specific
boundaries of pile machines based on specific boundaries of the
machines, survey them and select the right one.
21

22. REFERENCE
1) P.Jaina , A.K Naithania., T.N Singhb., Performance characteristics of tunnel boring machine in basalt and
pyroclasticrocks of Deccan traps– A case study, Journal of Rock Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering 6,
2014, pp. 36–47.
2) P. Bujok , M. Porzer , K. Labus , M. Klempa , J. Pavlus : Experimental modelling of abandoned shallow oil
wells convergence. Engineering Geology, vol. 157, 2013, pp. 1–7.
3) Definition of Piling Machine referred in - Journal of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering
36(5):119-124 DOI:10.11835/j.issn.1674-4764.2014.05.019
4) W. Sun, J. Ling, J. Huo, L. Guo, X. SongStudy of TBM cutter head fatigue damage mechanisms based on a
segmented comprehensive failure criterion Eng Failure Anal, 58 (Pt 1) (2015), pp. 64-82
5) About Gripper and its specification is referred in - O. Prof. Dr.-Ing. Dr. h. c. mult. Bernhard Maidl,
Leonhard Schmid, Willy Ritz, Martin Herrenknecht.
6) B. Singh, R.K. Goel, in Engineering Rock Mass Classification, 2011. NFM Technologies, n.d. Slurry
TBM (Benton' Air). Retrieved from <https://www.nfm-techonologyies.com/-Soft-ground-machine-
.html>.
7) Mix Shield Tunnel Boring Machine is referred in- The Constructor Building ideas
https://theconstructor.org/geotechnical/pile-driving-equipment-types uses/17605/
8) Robbins Company about single shield machine referred in - https://www.robbinstbm.com/products/tunnel-
boring-machines/single-shield/
9) Double shield machine is referred in IMIA Working Group Paper WGP 60 (09)Tunnel Boring Machine
prepared by M.Spencer, Z.L.A. Stolfa, G.L.E. Bentz,SCOR, P.S.Cross, Z.L.C. Blueckert, Z.S.J. Forder,
W.L.H.Wannick.
22

23. REFERENCE
23
10) S. Stryczek., A. Gonet .: Geoengineering. Publishing House of the Institute of Mineral and Energy Economy,
Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków 2000.
11) About diesel impact piling machine is referred in - Intelligent Pile-Driving with a Diesel Impact Hammer.
Michael D. Justason, Bermingham Foundation Solutions, Hamilton, Ontario, CANADA.
12) Steam impact hammer is referred in .Article on Steam Hammer consideration in the Steam Pipelines by D.P
Goswami, D.A.VD Bharani
13) V.L Ivko ., L.K Ovchinnikova ., V. Plontnikova ., 1973. A method of estimating the operational reliability of
kinematics mechanized support systems. Soviet Mining Science; 9(3): 333-335.M. Kumral ., 2005.
Reliability-based optimization of a mine production system using genetic algorithms. Journal of Loss
Prevention in the Process Industries; 18, 186-189.