NUMERICAL SIMULATION TO MODEL THE LABORATORY-SCALE OF DOUBLE DISC CUTTER EXCAVATABILITY USING THE THREEDIMENSIONAL FINITE ELEMENT METHOD

• Main Author: AGUSTINI, HAYATI
• Format: Final Project
• Language: Indonesia
• Online Access: https://digilib.itb.ac.id/gdl/view/57527
• Institution: Institut Teknologi Bandung

Tunnel Boring Machine or TBM is generally used to excavate tunnels with circular cross section through variety of soil and rock strata continuously. Discs are the most commonly used as cutter for TBM today. There are several factors that affect the performance of discs cutter to work optimally, one of them is spacing between the discs. This study aims to determine the excavation capability of concrete by discs cutter with finite element method in RS3 software. Numerical simulations were carried out by varying five spacings between the discs, namely 12 mm, 17 mm, 28 mm, 30 mm and 33 mm. The parameters obtained from the results of modeling are Strength Factor depth (SF = 1) as the depth of penetration and the value of minimum principal stress (????????) as a proven of failure zone. The depth of penetration result from modeling spacing of 12; 17; 28; 30; and 33 mm is 2.85; 2.98; 3.89; 4.16; and 4.33 mm. The 30 mm spacing which has a spacing/penetration ratio of 7.62 is the most optimal ratio because it requires the lowest specific energy, namely 18.51 MJ/m3.