SUPER DIAMETERS—DESIGN ASPECTS FOR VERY LARGE TBMs

摘要

The recent decades have seen tremendous changes in what is called a “large” TBM.rnWhereas a 12 m size was considered to be at the limit in the 1990s, the “15 m class”rnwas successfully introduced in the first decade of the new century. Now again onerndecade later the “18 m class” is becoming reality. The tunnel face area has more thanrndoubled from 115 m2 to 250 m2 and passing the 20 m line is not far off in the immediaternfuture. Besides the geotechnical aspects of such large face areas, TBM designers havernto face and overcome a variety of ever changing challenges arising from these superrndimensions. The paper will highlight such new challenges as well as presenting existingrnand future solutions for the large diameter TBM design developments.