ABSTRACT
The Face-Less Tunnelling Method (FLTM) is a new simple tunnel construction method without a working face excavation. In FLTM, the sliding steel plate called Friction Cut Plate (FCP) is placed between a box culvert and its surrounding soil to reduce frictional forces during the jacking process of the box culvert. In this study, the FCP monitoring and control system (FMCS) that is a real time control system to fix the FCP automatically during the box culvert advancement is developed. The system restrains the FCP by monitoring the displacement of FCP and controlling tensile forces acting between control jacks and the FCP. The FCP is systematically controlled via the solenoid valve control unit while switching between high pressure and low pressure states for each control jack based on the measurement of stroke sensors. The FMCS was applied to FLTM tunnelling work in Nagano, Japan. The measured horizontal displacements of locations along the railway track due to the construction showed less than plus/minus 3 mm.
