Tunnelling in urban areas by epb machines: technical evaluation of the system

The paper refers to the methods adopted for building a high-speed railway tunnel system between Bologna and Firenze(Italy), focusing attention on the Bologna node which represents the heart of the system, connecting the high speednetwork’s main lines. The project includes 9 tunnels, accounting for 73 km of the 78 km route crossing below theApennines. The paper pays attention to the main aspects to be taken into consideration for correctly choosing the tunnelboring machinery (TBM) tobe used in urban areas. Thefundamental point in analysing technical aspects regarding an earthpressure balance (EPB) machine concerned storing the main excavation parameter values; having collected and organisedsuch data, statistical methods were used for processing it, the instantaneous velocities attained were empirically estimatedand idle times were evaluated. The evaluation was made by calculating excavation specific energies (during differentexcavation phases) to find a satisfactory correlation with the type of ground crossed. Interesting results have been found bycomparison with other excavation parameters; in particular, a better understanding of an earth pressure balance shield’sworking phases has been reached thanks to an experimental study conducted during the construction of tunnels for ahigh-speed railway system in Italy. The paper contains details collected regarding the operation of two different EPBmachines.

• Autores: Cardu, Marilena; Oreste, Pierpaolo
• Tipo de recurso: Article of journal
• Fecha de publicación: 2011
• Institución: Universidad Nacional de Colombia
• Repositorio: Universidad Nacional de Colombia
• Idioma: spa
• OAI Identifier: oai:repositorio.unal.edu.co:unal/39094
• Acceso en línea: https://repositorio.unal.edu.co/handle/unal/39094; http://bdigital.unal.edu.co/29191/
• Rights: openAccess
• License: Atribución-NoComercial 4.0 Internacional