Sustainability with Energy Efficiency: A Touch on Power-Hungry Tunnel-Boring Machines

In parallel with technological developments, the importance of mechanical rock-cutting machines is increasing as the importance of underground structures in the mining and construction sectors increases day by day. Tunnel-boring machines (TBMs) are commonly used in the tunnelling and mining industries, and TBMs are power-hungry giant machines from 2 m to 16 m in diameter that require 1.5–8 MW of input power depending on their size. The main objective of this study is to conduct comparative experiments between the dynamic cutting tests using the dynamic cutting disc (DCD) fatigue technology and the traditional (non-oscillating) hard rock-cutting tests. When the DCD rock-cutting test results are checked with the cutting results of TBM discs, which are oscillation-free conventional discs, the cutting forces, and the specific energy (SE) are found to decrease by 30% with the 200% increase in excavated material. It is believed through this research that the development of low-energy machine technologies such as the DCD technology in tunnelling, mining, and construction areas where hard rock-cutting machines are constantly used will make great contributions to the sustainable economies of countries and science.