Theoretical and numerical analyses of thermal stresses and temperature variations in disc cutter cutting composite strata under thermal-force multi-fields

Composite strata consisting of hard and soft rock are common during shield cutter excavation. The friction cutting process generates a large amount of cutting heat, high temperature will produce thermal stresses and thermal expansion in the disc cutter ring, resulting in wear and deformation of the cutter, reducing its rock breaking performance. From the perspective of thermal-force change in cutter, This study establishes the theory of frictional heat generation and the theory of thermal stress of elastomer to analyse the frictional heat generation and derive the thermal stress theory of elastomer model in cutter. Numerical simulations were carried out to analyse the thermal-force multi-field coupling process considering the influencing factors such as penetration, cutting time, rock strength, etc. Solve the heat conduction equation and radial temperature field distribution from the heat transfer perspective. The comparative study of theoretical analysis, numerical simulation and experimental values shows that the theoretical and numerical results of thermal stress and temperature field distributions are consistent, which verifies the reasonableness of the theoretical derivation and numerical model. • Calculate the frictional heat of cut to obtain the temperature rise at the contact surface. • Modelling the internal temperature distribution of rock strata of different strengths. • Derivation of thermal stress expressions for cutter ring based on elastomer thermal stress theory. • Different penetration and cutting time are considered to obtain stress and temperature variation patterns. • Heat conduction method to solve the radial temperature field of the cutter ring.