Development of open TBM tunnelling performance prediction model based on Hydropower Classification (HC) system: A case study in Xinjiang

There are many hydraulic engineering projects in China, and Tunnel Boring Machine(TBM) method plays an important role in construction of hydraulic tunnels. Predicting its tunnelling performance is crucial for the development of projects. Due to the lack of consideration of groundwater, the existing empirical models that predicted TBM performance have poor performance for the gneiss filled with mud in fracture in Xinjiang hydraulic engineering. Therefore, this article uses correlation analysis to explore empirical relationship between Hydropower Classification(HC) system scores and various indicators with penetration rate based on the rock mass and tunneling data. The analysis results indicate that in the gneiss filled with mud in fracture in Xinjiang hydraulic engineering, for strata with a T` score below 65, the groundwater state will significantly affect the TBM penetration rate( PR ). Based on this, 4 PR empirical models considering the influence of groundwater were proposed based on different T` scores, the lowest R 2 of the 4 empirical models reached above 0.798, and the verification results show that the average errors of 4 penetration prediction model do not exceed 5.76%, 1.75%, 7.54%, 6.46%, respectively, and the maximum error does not exceed 22%. By analyzing the construction management plan and utilization rate (UR) of Xinjiang hydraulic engineering, a UR empirical model was proposed, and the prediction effect was good. Finally, an advance rate( AR ) empirical model was constructed based on the above two models. Through case verification, it has been proven that the empirical model proposed in this article has good prediction accuracy. This article proposes a new method for analyzing the correlation between groundwater status and PR. Before analysis, data is divided according to the T 'range, and then correlation analysis is carried out separately. The method used in this article can obtain more reliable analysis results, which has good reference significance for similar research. The empirical model proposed in this article can effectively consider the influence of groundwater on the TBM tunnelling performance in the gneiss filled with mud in fracture in Xinjiang hydraulic engineering. The analysis ideas and empirical models proposed in this article have good reference significance for similar projects. • Discussed the characteristics of the HC system scoring method. • Analyzed and discussed the impact of groundwater on TBM penetration rate. • Proposed an empirical model for TBM penetration rate considering the influence of groundwater. • Proposed a new TBM advance rate empirical model.