Numerical Investigation of Stress and Strain Analysis in Rock Breaking of TBM Disk Cutters

Disk cutters, as the main component of rock fragmentation, are prone to various types of breakages during rock cutting due to the unevenness of rocks in nature, which can affect rock breakage efficiency. This study has numerically simulated stress and strain changes for different rocks under rock breaking using disk cutters. This study has used several behavioral models, including elastic- plastic constitutive, plastic-kinematic, and elastic constitutive models, to analyze stress and strain in rock breakage. The aim was to determine different rocks’ strength and deformation ability under the action of TBM disk cutters. In three simulation models, the maximum stress in the elastic model exceeded those of plastic-kinematic and elastic-plastic models by 15.5 and 8.7 times, respectively. The plastic model is very susceptible to deformation and damage. On the other hand, the elastic model requires significant stresses to produce partial strains and releases the stress faster as the disk shear continues.