ABSTRACT
In shield tunnelling, the maintenance of cutting tools is an expensive and time-consuming process, where the tools are inaccessible during the advance process. A robust planning of the maintenance processes is necessary to get a predictable amount of downtime and maintenance costs. Even though there are first quantitative wear prediction models, the in-situ wear behaviour is influenced by a great number of uncertain input factors. These uncertainties must be considered for the evaluation and comparison of different maintenance strategies. This contribution shows the implementation of an empirical wear prediction model for hydro-shield projects into a process simulation framework. By using process simulation methods, the number of replaced tools and accesses into the excavation chamber and the time needed for each maintenance stop becomes predictable. Thus, the material as well as time-dependent costs are estimated considering the uncertainties of the input parameters.
