Thrust force control technique and scaled model test for consecutive advance of shield TBM

The paper proposed a consecutive excavation method to enhance the shield TBM advance rate. Distribution technique of thrust force should be developed for compensating of resting jacks on assembling segment. An optimization process is developed to redistribute thrust forces of the jacks, then sine and linear functions are adopted for optimum solutions. To examine the feasibility of the method, a scaled model of TBM was manufactured. The force redistribution techniques and sequential advance logic are programmed in the controller of the model. A consecutive TBM advance with controlling thrust jacks were demonstrated in the scaled model test, and the validation results were summarized.