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Laboratory tests on soil conditioning of clayey soil

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Abstract

Tunnelling in difficult and challenging conditions such as soft soils in urban areas is increasing. In this condition, it is important to minimise the possible negative effect of the tunnel excavation, such as settlement or, in the worst case, collapses. To achieve this result, earth pressure balance machines are commonly used. One of the key parameters that must be considered for an optimal management of the EPB-TBM excavation is soil conditioning since the excavated muck must properly transmit the pressure to the tunnel face. Soil conditioning is also necessary to reduce the effect of the problems, such as clogging in clay layers, that can occur during the excavation and that can affect the performance of the tools and of the entire tunnelling process. For this reason, in the last decade, much research has been carried out to understand how to deal with and reduce the effects of clogging and stickiness, using different conditioning additives. These studies have proposed several different test procedures to evaluate the effect of the conditioning on the adhesion of the soil on the metallic parts of the machines. The present research has been carried out with the aim of proposing a new approach and new devices to study clay conditioning with laboratory tests, and the results of many tests carried out with the proposed device are presented and discussed.

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Acknowledgments

This research is a by-product of a research project of Politecnico di Torino DIATI Dept. financed by Mapei company (Milano, Italy). Many of the obtained results are part of the PhD thesis work of Dr. A. Picchio. Special thanks are given to Eng. E. Pavese, who cooperated in this research within his MSc thesis work, and to A. Boscaro, who generously shared his ideas and suggestions and helped in the development of this laboratory research. The authors equally contributed to the research and the preparation of the paper.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. DIATI–Politecnico di Torino, Corso Duca degli Abruzzi 24, 10129, Turin, Italy

    D. Peila & D. Martinelli

  2. MAPEI S.p.A. UTT - Underground Technology Team, Milan, Italy

    A. Picchio & E. Dal Negro

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  1. D. Peila
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  2. A. Picchio
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  3. D. Martinelli
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  4. E. Dal Negro
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Correspondence to D. Martinelli.

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Peila, D., Picchio, A., Martinelli, D. et al. Laboratory tests on soil conditioning of clayey soil. Acta Geotech. 11, 1061–1074 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-015-0406-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-015-0406-8

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