Metal-soil interface adhesion in clay clogging during shield tunneling:Theoretical model and experimental validation

Clogging is a major geohazards risk in mechanized tunnelling through cohesive soils.Clay clogging results from the high adhesion between the clay and metal.Based on the water film theory and Reynolds fluid equation,the interfacial adhesion between metal and soil is simplified in this study as viscous hydrodynamic behavior between planes.Considering the influence of capillary force and the viscous force of water film at the interface between metal and soil,a theoretical calculation model of interfacial adhesion between metal and soil is established.The influence of water film thickness and separation rate on the interfacial adhesion between metal and soil is qualitatively analyzed.Then,the adhesion stress between the clay and the metal surface was tested with a pullout test and the influence of moisture content,pullout rates and types of clay minerals on the adhesion stress was analyzed.Finally,the calculation model of adhesion force was compared with the experimental results.The calculation model of soil adhesion stress established in this paper can quantitatively describe the relationship between soil adhesion force and moisture content and can also qualitatively reveal the influence mechanism of soil moisture content on adhesion stress.

Soil conditioning of clay based on interface adhesion mechanism:Microscopic simulation and laboratory experiment

Clogging frequently occurs in the cutter head,excavation chamber or screw conveyor when an earth pressure balance(EPB)shield machine is tunneling in soft or silty clay ground with high clay mineral content.In this paper,montmorillonite,kaolinite,and illite were selected as research objects,and molecular dynamics simulation and laboratory experiment were adopted.At the microscopic scale,dynamic contact behavior and interfacial mechanical behavior of the interface between clay minerals and water/surfactant solution was simulated and the interfacial adhesion and conditioning mechanism between clay minerals and water/surfactant solution was revealed.Thus,sodium dodecyl benzene sulfonate surfactant was selected as the main composition of the soil conditioner.Then,the adhesion stress before and after soil conditioning and the contact angles between clay minerals and water/surfactant solution were tested and analyzed at the macroscopic scale.The result shows that the contact angle between droplet and clay mineral surface is an important parameter to characterize soil adhesion.The simulation rules of the microscopic contact angle are consistent with the experiment results.Furthermore,the adsorption energy between microscopic substances is dominated by electrostatic force,which can reflect the adhesion stress between macroscopic substances.Soil adhesion stress can be effectively decreased by adding the surfactant to the soil conditioner.

Study of the wall adhesive tensile contact of moist iron ore bulk solids

The adhesive tensile stress between moist bulk iron ore solids and wall surfaces are critical to control and avoid blockage in large throughput material handling plants.In this study,an experimental system was designed to investigate the adhesive tensile contact between a range of iron ore materials and wall lining specimens.The contact mechanism between the material specimen and the wall surface was initially characterised.The experimental results indicated that the adhesive tensile stress is dependent on both the moisture content and the applied major consolidation stress,with the former exhibiting more significant contribution to increasing the magnitude of stress.The surface roughness of the wall showed a negligible effect in determining the adhesive tensile stress.Additionally,the iron ore sample with a higher fines content was observed to be able to achieve a higher adhesive tensile stress compared to the coarse samples.Consequently,the insights resulting from the study demonstrated practical applicability through measures such as blending and/or beneficiation,which reduce the adhesive tensile stress and minimise blockages.