The World's First Variable Diameter Inclined Shaft TBM has Been off the Assembly Line at CRCHI, Achieving Continuous Climbing with A Super Large Inclination Angle of 50° and Variable Diameter Excavation of 6.53 Meters and 8 Meters

On April 20, a TBM that can achieve 50°super steep slope climbing and 6.53m and 8m variable diameter excavation was completed in the First Industrial Park of CRCHI in Changsha. This is the world's first variable diameter inclined shaft rock TBM, which marks a new breakthrough in China's underground construction equipment, fills the gap in the field of full face mechanized construction equipment for super steep two-stage inclined shafts in China, and further enriches the global product spectrum of tunneling machines.

This equipment, named "Tianyue", has a total length of 87 meters and a total weight of about 900 tons. It will participate in the construction of the water diversion inclined shaft project of Hunan Province's key energy project - State Grid Xinyuan Hunan Pingjiang Pumped Storage Power Station. During the construction, the equipment can be flexibly transformed to achieve free switching between excavation diameters of 6.53 meters and 8 meters, and it also has the ability to continuously operate horizontal adits and 50 degree ultra large inclined shafts.

The Hunan Pingjiang Pumped Storage Power Station is located in Fushoushan Town, Pingjiang County, Yueyang City. The project has a total investment of 8.8 billion RMB, a total installed capacity of 1.4 million kilowatts, and a designed annual power generation capacity of 1.009 billion kilowatt hours. It is the largest pumped storage power station under construction in Hunan Province. The diversion inclined shaft tunnel is a key part of the power station construction. The height difference of the inclined shaft tunnel reaches 648 meters, which is 196 meters higher than the tallest building in Hunan, the "IFS", which is 452 meters. If traditional construction methods are used for operation, it cannot effectively cope with the complex climbing environment and faces extremely high safety risks.

The "Tianyue" adopts a construction method of crawling from bottom to top with a large slope of 50 degrees, which is the world's first technology. It can achieve full section excavation and initial support of a two-stage diversion inclined shaft in one formation, solving the problems of long construction cycle, low safety, and high labor intensity caused by the use of pilot shaft and drilling and blasting construction methods, and completing more efficient, safer, and intelligent inclined shaft tunnel construction operations.

The R&D team of CRCHI has boldly innovated in its design and innovatively proposed the configuration of multiple anti slip systems and emergency safety assurance systems to comprehensively ensure the safety of operations under various working conditions. At the same time, the R&D team overcame the problem of large-scale diameter variation of the cutterhead and shield body, expanding the diameter range of the TBM to 1.5 meters; For the first time in the world, the problem of a 50 meter radius ultra small vertical curve turning has been solved, making the tunneling machine suitable for continuous excavation in flat tunnels, inclined shafts, and turning sections, greatly improving the engineering adaptability.

In order to accelerate the construction of pumped storage power stations and help achieve the "carbon peaking and carbon neutrality goals", the project vigorously promotes the new concept of green intelligent construction of "mechanized personnel reduction, automated personnel replacement, and intelligent unmanned" during the construction process, and actively creates a demonstration site for the application of excavation machines in pumped storage power stations. In the construction of pumping inclined shafts, the traditional drilling and blasting method has an average monthly footage of about 40 meters. After using a tunneling machine for construction, the monthly progress can be increased to 200 meters, greatly reducing the safety risks of construction workers and achieving zero application of initiating explosive devices. The "Tianyue" has injected new impetus into the mechanization, greening, and digital construction of pumped storage power stations in China.

The "Tianyue" is another construction tool used in the construction of the Pingjiang Pumped Storage Power Station project in Hunan, following the "Pingjiang" small section tunneling machine, effectively accelerating the pace of China's "intelligent" manufacturing to assist in the construction of pumped storage power stations.

http://en.crchi.com/art/2023/4/20/art_40592_4345520.html