Investigation of the effect of disc spacing and penetration depth on rock fragmentation mechanism using PFC2D

Investigation of the effect of disc spacing and penetration depth on rock fragmentation mechanism using PFC2D

In this paper the effect of the ratio of disc spacing to penetration depth on the efficiency of TBM performance has been investigated using Particle flow code (PFC) in two dimensions. A model with dimension of 120*60 mm Consisting 13456 discs was simulated. The models have tensile strength of 5 MPa. Two “U” shape cutters with width of 1mm were penetrated into rock model by velocity of 0.1mm/s. The spacing between the cutters was 1mm, 2mm, 3mm, 4mm and 5 mm. Failure patterns for 5 different penetration depths of 3mm, 4mm, 5mm, 6, and 7 mm were registered