Study of wear in conditioned granular soil by using a new test device

The wear phenomenon in TBM machines is not a simple issue, as many parameters are playing an important role on the consumption of the tools during a tunnel excavation. The action of the wear di to the contact with the soil can occur on the excavation tools, on the cutterhead, in the excavating chamber and on the screw conveyor. The test developed at the Laboratory "Tunnelling and Underground Space Center" of the Politec di Torino is aimed to reproduce the interaction between the tools and the excavated material, simulating the excavation conditions in terms of soil conditioning and water content. The test, which not standardized, is studied to evaluate the wear in a global point of view. The present work starts b testing the influence of the use of chemical agents during the conditioning phase on the drop of the wear phenomenon, in terms of metal weight loss