Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Institute of Technology
Department Civil Engineering
Geotechnical Engineering
Course : Analysis of Slopes Earth
retaining Structure & Underground Structures
(CENG-7203)
TBM & TUNNELING BY TBM
The “Vasto” tunnel (Ancona-Bari railway line), 1991, ground: clayey silts, overburden <
50 m). Top: reinforcement of the advance core with fibre glass reinforcement; bottom:
excavation for tunnel advance
mechanised (full face TBMs)
Types and characteristics of the TBM
• slurry shields or hydroshields in which direct
confinement of the core-face is obtained by employing
bentonite in suspension pumped under pressure into the
excavation chamber;
• Earth Pressure Balanced (EPB) TBM’s in which it is the
muck itself, fluidified using special foam, which is
maintained under pressure in the excavation chamber
where control of the advance rate and of the spoil
removal flow rate is synchronised;
• mixshield or polyshield TBM’s are multi-purpose
machines capable of operating in the two modes above
mentioned and also dry, with no fluid pressure on the
core-face.
The TBM used for the excavation of the tunnel
and its lining is a Wirth TB 630 E/TS, double
shielded telescopic rock cutter with a diameter of
12.06 m capable of generating a maximum thrust
of 30,000 kN and an excavation torque of 5 kNm.
As has been said, the distinguishing feature of
the machine is that it was fitted with drilling
equipment inside the shield capable of drilling
holes in advance through special apertures in the
cutter head and on the steel shell for the purpose
of surveying or improving and reinforcing the
ground .
The current dimensions for road and rail tunnels
require excavation diameters of between 10 and
14 m & 120m its length modern technology
provides TBM’s of those dimensions. They are,
however, complex machines with a high cost that
require a long time to construct and assemble
and dismantle in situ. The supply and assembly
of machines of this type and size requires
average times of around 15 months, a period that
can only sometimes be arranged to partially or
totally coincide with the time taken for setting up
the construction site and preparing the portal.
the construction times and costs can only be
reduced for tunnels of a certain length.
Ginori service tunnel: view of the head of the TBM during
insertion in the tunnel
Pietro Lunardi