The comparative analysis of rocks' resistance to forward-slanting disc cutters and traditionally installed disc cutters

At present, disc cutters of a full face rock tunnel boring machine are mostly mounted in the traditional way. Practical use in engineering projects reveals that this installation method not only heavily affects the operation life of disc cutters, but also increases the energy consumption of a full face rock tunnel boring machine. To straighten out this issue, therefore, a rock-breaking model is developed for disc cutters＇ movement after the research on the rock breaking of forward-slanting disc cutters. Equations of its displacement are established based on the analysis of velocity vector of a disc cutter＇s rock-breaking point. The functional relations then are brought forward between the displacement parameters of a rock-breaking point and its coordinate through the analysis of micro displacement of a rock-breaking point. Thus, the geometric equations of rock deformation are derived for the forward-slanting installation of disc cutters. With a linear relationship remaining between the acting force and its deformation either before or after the leap breaking, the constitutive relation of rock deformation can be expressed in the form of generalized Hooke law, hence the comparative analysis of the variation in the resistance of rock to the disc cutters mounted in the forward-slanting way with that in the traditional way. It is discovered that with the same penetration, strain of the rock in contact with forwardslanting disc cutters is apparently on the decline, in otherwords, the resistance of rock to disc cutters is reduced. Thus wear of disc cutters resulted from friction is lowered and energy consumption is correspondingly decreased. It will be useful for the development of installation and design theory of disc cutters, and significant for the breakthrough in the design of full face rock tunnel boring machine.

Pore-scale investigation of residual oil displacement in surfactant–polymer flooding using nuclear magnetic resonance experiments

Research on the Gangxi III area in the Dagang Oilfield shows that there was still a significant amount of oil remaining in oil reservoirs after many years of polymer flooding.This is a potential target for enhanced oil recovery（EOR）.Surfactant–polymer（SP） flooding is an effective chemical EOR method for mobilizing residual oil and improving displacement efficiency macroscopically,but the microscopic oil displacement efficiency in pores of different sizes is unclear.Nuclear magnetic resonance（NMR） is an efficient method for quantifying oil saturation in the rock matrix and analyzing pore structures.In this paper,the threshold values of different pore sizes were established from the relationship between mercury injection curves and NMR T2 spectrums.The distribution and migration of residual oil in different flooding processes was evaluated by quantitatively analyzing the change of the relaxation time.The oil displaced from pores of different sizes after the water flood,polymer flood,and the SP flood was calculated,respectively.Experimental results indicate that（1） the residual oil in medium pores contributed the most to the incremental oil recovery for the SP flood,ranging from 40 % to 49 %,and small pores usually contributed ／30 %;（2） the residual oil after the SP flood was mainly distributed in small and medium pores;the residual oil in medium pores accounted for 47.3 %–54.7 %,while that trapped in small pores was 25.7 %–42.5 %.The residual oil in small and medium pores was the main target for EOR after the SP flood in oilfields.