Essay On Tunneling

Words: 3432
Pages: 14

1. Introduction
1.1 History
Tunnel boring machines was widely use in tunneling. It has been developed in recent years. Starting from 19th century, people used tunnel boring machines to drill and blast out tunnel as railway network had been widely developed worldwide. Tunneling is considered as a more effective and economic ways for creating underground space. In the year 1825, Sir Marc Isambard Brunel had developed the first successful tunneling shield to excavate the Rotherhithe tunnel under the Thames.

Figure 1.1(a): Tunneling shield used to construct the Thames tunnel (Michael Spencer & Alessandro Stolfa, 2009)

The first earlier tunnel boring machine (Mount Cenis Tunnel, 1846) was developed by Henry-Joseph Maus’ Mountain Slicer. Figure 1.1(b): Mount Cenis Tunnel, 1846 (Michael Spencer & Alessandro Stolfa, 2009)
It was used to dig the Fréjus Rail Tunnel between France and Italy through the Alps. In 1853, the first boring

Normally, the screw conveyor is placed at the angle of 45 degrees from the horizontal axis. When the screw conveyor is in use, the bottom end of the tube starts to turn, it ladle out certain amount of soil. The soil will be scooped up into the cylindrical tube as the shaft is turned. The soil continues its motion along the tube until it reaches at the top of the tube. A sort of mechanical equilibrium is achieved as the soil fills every section of the tube. The mechanical equilibrium achieved helps to increase a lot in the efficiency of the machine.
When an object is moving, it has kinetic energy. Same concept can be applied on a body rotating about a fixed axis also has energy. A torque can be applied on the body in order to change its rate of rotation and also the energy of the body. As the cylinder tube rotates, it produces the rotational energy and the energy produced can be used to do work (“Archimedes’ screw,”