Impact of Ground Conditions on Penetration Rate of Slurry TBM in Soft Ground Tunneling

Impact of Ground Conditions on Penetration Rate of Slurry TBM in Soft Ground Tunneling | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Impact of Ground Conditions on Penetration Rate of Slurry TBM in Soft Ground Tunneling Adel El-Kelesh, Ayman Shehata, Elsayed Elkasaby This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7892290/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract In the practice of soft ground tunneling, the penetration rate ( PR ) of slurry TBM (STBM) in soft ground tunneling is usually estimated on the basis of experience of practitioners. A guideline that can be used to predict PR of STBM in soft ground tunneling is not available. The problem stems from the little understanding of the effects of ground type and conditions. Evaluation of such effects is approached in this paper through the use of field records of actually constructed tunnels. N-value ( N ) of SPT and fines content ( F c ) of ground are presented and used to represent the type and conditions of ground excavated by STBM. A good correlation is established between N and PR . This correlation reveals that PR increases exponentially with the increase of N . Another correlation is established between F c and PR . This correlation indicates that PR decreases exponentially with the increase of F c . Implications of the developed correlations for actual construction of tunnels are illustrated. Tunneling Slurry TBM Soft Ground Penetration Rate Ground Type Ground Conditions N-value of SPT Fines Content Empirical Correlation Clogging Full Text Additional Declarations No competing interests reported. Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. We do this by developing innovative software and high quality services for the global research community. Our growing team is made up of researchers and industry professionals working together to solve the most critical problems facing scientific publishing. Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7892290","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":538642306,"identity":"5b195390-77cb-4a95-ac5a-42990bebaf69","order_by":0,"name":"Adel El-Kelesh","email":"","orcid":"","institution":"Zagazig University","correspondingAuthor":false,"prefix":"","firstName":"Adel","middleName":"","lastName":"El-Kelesh","suffix":""},{"id":538642307,"identity":"b7538e75-748c-484a-bf05-b1f564c941d1","order_by":1,"name":"Ayman 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Tunneling","fulltext":[],"fulltextSource":"","fullText":"","funders":[],"hasAdminPriorityOnWorkflow":false,"hasManuscriptDocX":false,"hasOptedInToPreprint":true,"hasPassedJournalQc":"","hasAnyPriority":false,"hideJournal":true,"highlight":"","institution":"","isAcceptedByJournal":false,"isAuthorSuppliedPdf":true,"isDeskRejected":"","isHiddenFromSearch":false,"isInQc":false,"isInWorkflow":false,"isPdf":true,"isPdfUpToDate":true,"isWithdrawnOrRetracted":false,"journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true},"keywords":"Tunneling, Slurry TBM, Soft Ground, Penetration Rate, Ground Type, Ground Conditions, N-value of SPT, Fines Content, Empirical Correlation, Clogging","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7892290/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7892290/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eIn the practice of soft ground tunneling, the penetration rate (\u003cem\u003ePR\u003c/em\u003e) of slurry TBM (STBM) in soft ground tunneling is usually estimated on the basis of experience of practitioners. A guideline that can be used to predict \u003cem\u003ePR\u003c/em\u003e of STBM in soft ground tunneling is not available. The problem stems from the little understanding of the effects of ground type and conditions. Evaluation of such effects is approached in this paper through the use of field records of actually constructed tunnels. N-value (\u003cem\u003eN\u003c/em\u003e) of SPT and fines content (\u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e\u003cem\u003ec\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sub\u003e) of ground are presented and used to represent the type and conditions of ground excavated by STBM. A good correlation is established between \u003cem\u003eN\u003c/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003ePR\u003c/em\u003e. This correlation reveals that \u003cem\u003ePR\u003c/em\u003e increases exponentially with the increase of \u003cem\u003eN\u003c/em\u003e. Another correlation is established between \u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e\u003cem\u003ec\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sub\u003e and \u003cem\u003ePR\u003c/em\u003e. This correlation indicates that \u003cem\u003ePR\u003c/em\u003e decreases exponentially with the increase of \u003cem\u003eF\u003c/em\u003e\u003csub\u003e\u003cem\u003ec\u003c/em\u003e\u003c/sub\u003e. Implications of the developed correlations for actual construction of tunnels are illustrated.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Impact of Ground Conditions on Penetration Rate of Slurry TBM in Soft Ground Tunneling","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-11-03 03:21:18","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7892290/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"da04b851-a485-4536-a45b-2f26e06ef931","owner":[],"postedDate":"November 3rd, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-11-27T19:08:08+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-11-03 03:21:18","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7892290","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7892290","identity":"rs-7892290","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}