Should be not too lengthy (L<0.

8D) and the cavity diameter should be slightly larger than the outer
diameter of the shield, i.e. a shield-to-rock-clearance of ca 25 mm should be provided for.

Fig. 4.23. Historic shield tunnelling beneath the St. Clair River

Fig. 4.24. Shield with blades and roadheader

After each advance stroke the hydraulic pistons of the jacks are retracted in such a way that an
additional slice of lining can be added under the protection of the shield tail (Fig 4.25). During the
subsequent advance stroke the tail gap is filled with grout. Coordination of the individual steps isn
important. Typical advance rates are 0.5 to 2 m/h.

Fig. 4.25. Sequences of shield heading

stroke the tail gap is filled with grout. Coordination of the individual steps in important. Typical
advance rates are 0.5 to 2 m/h.

An overly large thrust can damage the lining segments. The thrust is applied to overcome mainly
the wall friction, which can be estimated by UL, where L and U are the length and the
circumference of the shield, respectively. The normal stress at the depth of the tunnel axis and the
friction coefficient is usually assumed between 0.7 and 0.9. If the face is supported by breasting
flaps (Fig. 4.26 right), a force of 8 to 10 MIN has to be added.

Fig. 4. 26. Platform-shield; shield with face breasting flaps

Excavation: The excavation is either full-face, with rotary cutterheads (Fig. 4.27), or selective, with
boom headers or roadcutters (roadheaders) that excavate the face in a series of sweeps (see also
Section 4.2). The cutterhead can be driven either electrically or hydraulic drive is more flexible.
The necessary thrust and torque are determined empirically. Note, however, that in general the
cutterhead is not expected to support the face. At standstill the openings should be closed with
panels. In sticky soils the wheel should be as open as possible. Adhesion of sticky soil (e.g. plastic
clay) is a considerable handicap and can be combated with flushing.

The cutterhead is equipped with the following tools to excavate the ground: Formatted: English (United Kingdom)

Disc cutters, drag bits (for rock and embedded blocks)

Chisels, scrapers (for sand ands gravel) Formatted: English (United Kingdom)
Scrapers (for cohesive soil)

Fig 4.27. Cutterheads with scrapers and discs

Some maintenacemaintenance works to the cutterhead can only be undertaken from ahead. To Formatted: English (United Kingdom)
this end, the adjacent soil can be stabilised by grouting or freezing. Then the shield is retracted so
that a space is created from which the inspection can proceed.

Cutterheads also have facilities for advance drilling that serves either for soil exploration or for
grouting. The Herrenknecht cutterhead utilized in the 4th Elbe tube and later in Moscow Formatted: Superscript
(Lefortovo), see Fig. 4. 27 (right), was equipped by Amberg with a device to detect blocks and
other obstacles with sonic pulses.
Face support: An unstable face can cause surface settlements and should, therefore, be supported
e.g. with panels (Fig. 4.26 right) or with the cutterhead (if 5<cu<30 kN/m2). Alternatively, the soil is
allowed to run out onto platforms to form supporting heaps (platform-shield, Fig. 4.26 left). Very
soft soil can be laterally displaced. Unsupported faces are

Fig. 4.28. Double shield

Fig. 4.29. Double shield TBM, 1: telescopic shield, 2: gripper, 3: jacks

very problematic or impossible, especially below water level. See also Section 4.4.1 and Chapter
17.

If the cutterhead has to support the face, it must cover a part of the face which should be as large
as possible. The muck enters through slots. Alternatively, panels can be elastically mounted on the
spokes of the cutterhead.

Lining segments: These are made of precast reinforced concrete or of cast iron and have secant
lengths up to 2.2 m and widths between 0.6 and 2.0 m (Fig. 4.32). Several segments form a ring.
Each ring is closed with a so-called key segment (Fig. 4.30).

Wider segments speed up the rate of lining but are disadvantageous for curved tunnels. The
segments are moved with vacuum erectors and temporality fixed with straight or curved bolts (Fig.
4.31). Alternatively plugs and studs can be used.

Fig. 4.30. Array of segments. Left: perspectively, right: unfurled

Fig. 4.31. Segments assemblies with straight or curved bolts

Usually, segments are made of concrete C35/45. A higher concrete strength is not necessary and
renders the segments more brittle (edges can flake).

The previously used hollow or ribbed segments are no longer in use. The segments must also be
designed to carry the loads during transport and installation. The use of steel fibre reinforced
concrete (e.g. with 30 kg fibres per m3 concrete) simplifies the manufacturing process and reduces
the hazard of edge flaking. Steel fibres are often used together with bar reinforcement. With the
introduction of spheroidal graphite iron (SGI), cast iron segments are now increasingly used. Their
tensile strength allows to carry bending moments and they are up to 30 40% lighter than
reinforced concrete segments. In addition they occupy a smaller part of the tunnel cross section
and their joints are sufficiently waterproof. Corrosion is small (0.4 mm per year).

Fig. 4.32. Segmental tunnel lining; Placing of small discs of wood in the joint

To assure a good force transmittance, the segments must be produced with high accuracy. The
tolerance in longitudinal direction should be no more than 0.3 to 1 mm and 2 mm for the
thickness.

Planar joints with roughness less than 1 mm have been successfully applied, whereas groove and
tongue (tenon and mortise) can be easily damaged. As the lining segments are compressed against
each other, they do not need to be connected. However, they have to be bolted together for
installation. If the transverse forces are high, the individual rings can slip relative to each other,
thereby reducing these forces. To preserve this mobility, stuffings, e.g. thin plates of wood, are
placed in the joints (Fig. 4.32). The lining is waterproofed by means of gaskets placed between the
segments (Fig. 4.33). The gaskets are compressed and thus become watertight. There are also
water-expansive gaskets.

Fig 4.34. Supply of extruded concrete

A promising but not yet mature development is the lining with extruded concrete, which is a non-
reinforced (or reinforced with steel fibres) concrete cast in the cover of the shield tail into a casing
(Fig. 4.34).

In most cases the lining is much more expensive (approx. 80% of the tunnel construction costs)
than the shield machine and should, therefore, be carefully designed.

Cover: If the tunnel is designed for the purpose to lead a surface lifeline underneath an obstacle,
ramps must be provided for. To avoid lengthy ramps, there is a tendency towards small covers. In
this case, however, the face support must be very accurate. It is recommended that a minimum
cover of 0.8D (D=shield diameter) is maintained.

Mucking: With conventional excavators, mucking is done with trucks. With use of a cutterhead,
mucking is done with the following methods (Fig. 4.35):

Transport with conveyor belt and subsequently with trucks or trains Formatted: List Paragraph, Bulleted + Level: 1 +
Mix with slurry and pump Aligned at: 0.25" + Indent at: 0.5"
Mix with water or foam to form a mush and with screw conveyor or pump.

In tunnel heading only the soil that occupies the intended cavity has to be removed, whereas the
surrounding soul should remain in place. However, it cannot be completely avoided that a part of
the surrounding soil moves during excavation into the intended cavity and is removed too. This
part of soil constitutes the so-called volume loss. In shield heading, the motion of soil into the
cavity can occur via the face and can cause substantial settlements or even cave-ins, if it is
excessive. Therefore it is tried to control the discharge of muck by weighing.

Fig. 4.35. Removal of the waste material with conveyor belt (a) or with screw conveyor (b),
Herrenknecht

Tail void closure: The outer diameter of the shield is larger than the outer diameter of the lining in Formatted: Font: Bold
such a way that the moving shield leaves behind a tail void, whose thickness is up to 20 cm. Such a
large void can cause the lining rings to shift and/or large surface settlements and must, therefore,
be filled (closed) with mortar (tail gap grouting). The mortar should set as fast as possible but not
too fast (otherwise it cannot be pumped in). To avoid settlements, the ring tail closure should be
done as soon as possible after excavation and the grouting pressure should be equal to the
primary normal stress. Of course, there is no exact way to fulfil this requirement, because the
primary stress varies from point to point and is, at that, hardly known. In addition the grouting
pressure field cannot be plugged, otherwise the grouted mortar can escape. The plugging is
achieved with steel brushes, whose bristles are filled with grease (Fig. 4.36).

A new method of keeping the grouting pressure constant within the tail void is to provide a
compliant sealing lip which yields only if a threshold pressure is reached, so that the void can be
filled with a constant pressure. It turns out that tail gap grouting cannot completely reverse
settlement, even if the volume of the grout considerably exceeds the volume of the gap. This can
be explained if one considers the mechanical behaviour of ground at loading-unloading cycles.

Guidance: If the tunnel has a curvature radius less than 300 m, it is advisable to articulate the Formatted: Font: Bold
shield. The lining segments must be adjusted to the tunnel curvature otherwise they can be
damaged. Tapered segments, as shown in Fig. 4.37, are universally applicable. To follow a
prescribed curve, the jacks must be appropriately loaded and mounted in a slidable way,
otherwise they can be excessively strained. In shields with a cutterhead the jacks are inclined to
counteract the torque of the wheel. This torque is transmitted to the surrounding ground via wall
friction of the lining. If this friction is not sufficient, then the shield will rotate.

Fig. 4.37. Lining with conical segments, (a) straight drive (b) curved drive

Formatted: English (United Kingdom)