Identifying Rock Loads on TBM Shields During Standstills (Non-Advance-Periods)

Tunnel boring machine (TBM) operational data is mostly analysed with respect to data that was recorded during the advance of the TBM. Focusing on data that was recorded during standstills of a gripper TBM, we analyse rock loads that were passively recorded in the cylinders of a small roof support shield. These roof support cylinders are situated beneath the TBM’s shield – extending it against the rock mass during non-advance periods. Equipped with pressure sensors, they enable the unique opportunity of logging rock load variations throughout the tunnel. Hence due to the big amount of resulting data, techniques of unsupervised machine learning (i.e., cluster analysis) are used to automatically pre-process the TBM operational data. Furthermore, regression analysis is used to determine sections of the tunnel where rock loads are mainly occurring on the left or right side respectively. The data driven analysis shows that the main rock loads are occurring on the right side of the TBM which is in good accordance with observation from the construction site, as well as numerical models from literature. This paper contributes towards the understanding of rock load conditions in anisotropic rock masses recorded during the drive of a deep hard rock tunnel.