Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 38 (2013) 279–286

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Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology

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Technical Note

Periodic inspection of gauge cutter wear on EPB TBMs using cone

penetration testing
Ehsan Alavi Gharahbagh a,⇑, Michael A. Mooney a, Glen Frank b, Bryan Walter a, Michael A. DiPonio b
a
Colorado School of Mines, Golden, CO, United States
b
JayDee Contractors, Inc., Seattle, WA, United States

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Cutterhead maintenance is usually required when the gauge cutters (over-cutters) wear down to the
Received 17 August 2012 shield diameter. In soft ground pressurized shielded TBMs, inspection of gauge cutters usually involves
Received in revised form 30 June 2013 complete stoppage of the operation. This can be a dangerous, costly, and time consuming process. In this
Accepted 3 July 2013
study, a novel approach has been developed to monitor gauge cutter wear by considering the relationship
between the overcut length and the length of the gauge cutters. By using the proposed testing system,
frequent monitoring of gauge cutter length is possible at appropriate intervals during ring builds or main-
Keywords:
tenance without the need to enter the harsh environment of the excavation chamber. This monitoring
Periodic inspection
Gauge cutter
system was used within an EPB TBM during the excavation of the University Link Light Rail Tunnel
EPB TBM (U230) in Seattle, WA.
Overcut length Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Overcut CPT testing device
Hyperbaric intervention
Gauge cutter wear

1. Introduction
Cutterhead maintenance is most often required when the gauge
cutters are worn down close to the shield diameter. Gauge cutters
must travel further than face cutters. This tends to increase the rate
of wear. Further, the speed that the cutters travel as the cutterhead
rotates is highest at the perimeter. This increases the impact load-
ing on the gauge cutters when boulders are encountered. Unde-
tected wear of the gauge cutters on the Los Angeles ECIS project
resulted in failure and loss of originally fitted chromium carbide
wear plate on the cutterhead rim. In this case the cutterhead radius
showed a loss of 2 cm of carbide plate in addition to 2 cm of struc-
tural wear. Extensive underground repair works were required,
delaying the project for several months (Nilsen et al., 2007). This
example and many others show the importance of inspecting the
length of gauge cutters as the tunneling progress.
Further, cutterhead inspection and maintenance in Earth Pres-
sure Balance (EPB) TBMs can become dangerous, time consuming
and costly when the ground is unstable, e.g., under groundwater
conditions. In this situation, cutterhead inspection and tool main-
tenance are performed under pressurized conditions or so called
‘‘hyperbaric intervention’’. This involves supporting the face,
removing the muck, applying compressed air, and allowing the
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 214 909 8828; fax: +1 303 273 3413.
E-mail address: eia5045@psu.edu (E. Alavi Gharahbagh).
crew into the pressurized chamber via an air lock. Although, cut-
terhead inspection and maintenance is important and needs to
be conducted in specific intervals through the project, the number
of times that personnel are subjected to this environment should
be minimized.
Cutterhead inspection can also be costly because no mining can
be performed during inspection. It has become almost a standard
procedure that a cutterhead maintenance plan is created and
implemented by the contractor. In addition, it is becoming more
common for the owners to include a minimum number of cutter-
head inspections in the contract documents. For example, the
Brightwater West contract in Seattle, WA mandated 40 inspection
stops during 6400 linear meters of tunneling. This translated into
approximately 120 h (5 days) of lost production time for inspection
purposes (Shinouda et al., 2011).
The methods for monitoring cutter wear during soft ground
mechanized tunneling can be summarized into two groups; instru-
mented cutting tools and visual inspection methods. In soft and
mixed ground, the only examples of instrumented cutting tools
are the hydraulically pressurized ‘scrapers’ that offer limited resolu-
tion and minimal feedback. The pressure in these scrapers is moni-
tored and, if a breach occurs, the pressure drops and the operator
is notified. A schematic of a pressurized ripper can be seen in Fig. 2.
In the case of visual inspection, the only method reported in the
literature is the system used in the Brightwater west contract. In
this implementation, a remote camera (periscope) was used to

0886-7798/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2013.07.013
280 E. Alavi Gharahbagh et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 38 (2013) 279–286

Table 1
Number of boulders for each tunnel based on GBR.

Boulder size (m) 0.3–0.6 0.6–0.9 0.9–1.2 1.2–1.5 1.5–1.8 >1.8

Number of boulders Northbound tunnel 57 9 6 1 1 0
Southbound tunnel 57 9

visually inspect the condition of the cutterhead (Shinouda et al.,
2011). By using this camera, the general condition of the cutter-
head was visually inspected without the need for human-entry,
therefore shortening the inspection time by an average of 3 h.
Fig. 1. General view of the cutterhead and the location of six gauge cutters.
There are several reasons that monitoring systems are not more
common in this environment. The first is that it is more difficult to
inspect the cutterhead because of elevated face pressures, thus
making prototype systems more challenging. The second is that
examples of instrumented cutting tools such as scrapers and rip-
pers have yet to be developed. Lastly, the area behind the cutter-
head serves as a soil mixing chamber, making wireless
communication nearly impossible. A more detailed review of
instrumented cutters is presented by Walter et al. (2012).
To this end, there would be considerable benefit from develop-
ing cutterhead inspection techniques that can be performed fre-
quently and within the normal tunneling operations, i.e., to
minimize the down time due to inspection.
The objective of this study was to develop a method to period-
ically monitor the length of gauge cutters without stopping the
tunneling operation. A novel approach was developed to measure
the overcut. The assumption is that the overcut will decrease with
gauge cutter wear and that the overcut region will be discernibly
softer than the undisturbed region outside the overcut region. A
new testing device was designed and manufactured using concepts
of the hydraulic cone penetration test (CPT). The CPT was imple-
mented from within through additive injection ports in the TBM
shield. This device was implemented during construction of the
University Link Light Rail Tunnel in Seattle, WA. This paper intro-
duces the tunnel project, describes the components and methodol-
ogy of the overcut CPT, and presents results from multiple tests
along the alignment, including measurements during an interven-
tion to validate the CPT-based approach.

2. University Link Tunneling project (U230)

The Sound Transit University Link project is a 5.07 km light rail

Fig. 2. Pressurized cutting tool (Trisi, 2011).
extension that will run in twin bored tunnels from Downtown
Seattle to the University of Washington, with stations at Capitol
Hill and on the University of Washington campus near Husky
Stadium. The project is broken up into several parts, where the
U230 portion deals with the excavation of Capitol Hill Station
and installation of 1.18 km of twin-bored tunnels from the Capitol
Hill Station (CHS) to the Pine Street stub tunnel (PSST) in Down-
town Seattle. The joint venture of Jay Dee Contractors, Inc., Frank
Coluccio Construction Company, and Michels Corporation was
awarded the U230 Project. The tunnels are approximately 6.44 m
in diameter and are to be furnished with concrete segmental

Fig. 3. Subsurface geology of the tunnel alignment (Irish, 2009).

 E. Alavi Gharahbagh et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 38 (2013) 279–286
tunnel lining having an outside diameter of 6.27 m and an inside
diameter of 5.74 m.
The Seattle area has a complicated geologic history. Six major
glacial events have happened during last 2 million years with
intervening non-glacial erosional and depositional periods. The
geologic description of this project can be divided into fluvial
deposits, glacial deposits, lacustrine and glaciolacustrine deposits,
all of which have been glacially over-ridden and are therefore
highly over-consolidated (1 < OCR < 4.3 and OCR average of 2.5)
Geotechnical Data Report, 2009. Around 70% of the alignment is lo-
cated in over-consolidated fine grain soils. Fig. 3 shows the subsur-
face geology of the tunnel alignment. The Soil Groups defined for
this project in the Geotechnical Baseline Report (GBR) are not very
abrasive with quartz contents ranging from 13% to 42% and soil
abrasion testing (SAT) values ranging from 2 to 18. Table 1 summa-
rizes the total number of boulders (based on GBR) that were
expected to be encountered during the excavation of Northbound
and Southbound tunnels with their representative size.
The general view of the TBM cutterhead is presented in Fig. 1.
The cutterhead has a face opening of 45%, with 6 spokes. There
are 6 gauge cutters designed in this TBM with the maximum length
of 10.2 cm. Longer gauge cutters than normal were installed to ex-
tend the time between cutter replacement. There is a perception in
the industry that the length of gauge cutters should be very short
(on the order of 10–30 mm for small diameter TBMs) in order to
minimize the steering gap and associated risk of settlement (for
larger diameter TBMs, even with small overcuts, overcut volume
and the potential for larger ground settlement is much greater if
the overcut is not filled). This belief is based on the assumption
that the overcut gap is a void and that ground loss occurs into
Fig. 4. (a) Integrated overcut CPT testing device consisting a laptop, hydraulic jack with linear displacement sensor, DAQ device, pressure sensor and hydraulic pump and (b)
installed testing device inside the shield.
281
the gap, causing settlement. This general concept is true for
open-face TBMs where the disturbed ground is not conditioned
or pressurized so that it is removed through the cutterhead rather
than being squeezed into the overcut gap. Monitoring of ground
loss with extensometer and deep settlement points as a shield is
advanced has confirmed this behavior for open face shields (Cord-
ing, 2010). In contrast, extended overcut can be properly controlled
in EPB tunneling in dense soils such that no soil relaxation, loss of
ground or additional settlement occurs (DiPonio et al., 2012).
2.1. Design and fabrication of the overcut CPT testing device
Fig. 4 shows the overcut CPT testing device that was designed
and built for monitoring the overcut length. As can be seen from
this figure, a hydraulic jack with a linear displacement sensor
was used to overcome the pressure applied at the overcut zone
(outside the shield). The relationship between pressure and
penetration depth was used to determine the length of the overcut
area. This hypothesizes that the pressure remains constant inside
the overcut zone and as soon as the cone enters the intact soil,
the pressure increases significantly. A standard DCP hardened cone
tip with angle of 60° and tip base diameter of 2 cm was welded to
the rod of the utilized tie rod hydraulic cylinder. The hydraulic cyl-
inder has 41 cm of stroke and was double-acting so that it could be
retracted at the completion of each penetration test. An inline pres-
sure sensor was installed on the pump in order to monitor the
force required to push the testing device through the overcut zone.
The linear displacement sensor and the inline pressure sensor were
then connected to a data acquisition system, which allowed for
repeatable and continuous measurement of pressure and penetra-
282 E. Alavi Gharahbagh et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 38 (2013) 279–286
Fig. 5. General arrangement of the EPB TBM in addition to location of the additive injection port.
Fig. 6. Location of the utilized ports to perform the test with respect to location of
the gauge cutters.
tion length. The precision of the pressure sensor and linear dis-
placement sensor are ±1.7 kPa (±0.24 psi) and ±0.1 mm
(±0.004 in.), respectively. In addition, because of the pressurized
environment and the possibility of flowing material, a sealing sys-
tem was designed and attached to the cylinder. By using this seal,
the testing device could be connected to one of the six available
additive injection ports (Figs. 5 and 6) in the front shield of the
TBM to prevent material from flowing into the shield. These ports
were selected as the location to set up the testing device in order to
frequently monitor the length of the overcut while the TBM was
stationary, e.g., during ring builds or maintenance. The ports on
this TBM are located approximately 3.6 m behind the cutterhead.
If there were convergence of the excavated ground behind the face
as a result of the overcut, then this measurement approach would
affect gauge cutter wear estimation. However, in EPB tunneling as
stated in the previous section, the overcut is pressurized and there-
fore, ground loss due to convergence in the annulus and in the
short period of time between the end of excavation and performing
the test is unlikely to happen.
The test was performed in two locations in the front shield of the
TBM, namely port 5 o’clock and port 11 o’clock (Fig. 6). Having mea-
surements near the crown and near the invert enabled us to assess
the concentric nature of the annulus. In addition, the alignment of
the excavated tunnel is challenging as there is a continuous curva-
ture in the alignment that can affect the testing results significantly
if test is performed in only one location. The goal of performing the
test in two locations (5 and 11 o’clock) and averaging these measure-
ments was to minimize such potential errors. As can be seen in part
(b) of Fig. 4, there was limited space between the end of the hydrau-
lic jack and the shield of the screw conveyor. The distance from the
beginning of the additive injection port (location of the cone) to the
shield is 15.2 cm and the thickness of the shield was 2.5 cm. In addi-
tion, the ball valve that originally was attached to the injection port
was replaced with a Guillotine valve in order to ensure that if the
testing system failed, the valve could be closed immediately without
the risk of pressure or ground loss.
Penetration length and pressure are recorded continuously by
using a data acquisition (DAQ) system and a laptop. The pressure
is applied such that the probe moves slowly outwards with a pen-
etration rate of less than 1 cm/s. In addition, the operator can visu-
ally monitor the pressure and penetration length in a software
application which utilizes a graphical user interface (GUI). The
combination of the GUI and the continuous measurements allows
the operator to halt the program when the pressure increases sig-
nificantly, indicating the cone penetrating the undisturbed soil.
3. Results and discussion
In several locations during the excavation of the southbound
tunnel, the testing device was used to measure the length of the
overcut. During the only man-entry inspection stop, the length of
the gauge cutter was precisely measured and compared to the re-
sults obtained during testing. The locations of performed tests in
southbound tunnel were at advances 67, 195, 291, 415, 478, 555,
631, and 684 after 102 m, 297 m, 443 m, 632 m, 728 m, 846 m,
962 m, and 1042 m of excavation respectively. The final inspection
was performed at advance 684, which was exactly at the last test
location. This inspection was performed under free air and inside
a controlled density fill (CDF) shaft. This was an open shaft that
had a concrete roof constructed above the tunnel crown and then
was filled with CDF. During this inspection the overcut length
was measured precisely.
The pressure and penetration rate vs. penetration length results
for advance 67 and advance 291 are reported in Figs. 7 and 8. The
vertical red1 lines in Figs. 7 and 8 illustrate the shield thickness and
an estimate of where the overcut – undisturbed soil interface lies
based on the data. In the analysis, the threshold between overcut-
undisturbed soil is selected whenever the recorded pressure in-
creases to a level higher than the recorded pressure through the test.
1
For interpretation of color in Figs. 7 and 8, the reader is referred to the web
version of this article.
 E. Alavi Gharahbagh et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 38 (2013) 279–286 283

Fig. 7. The results of testing for advance 67, after 102 m of tunneling.

As you can see from Fig. 7, there is a slight difference between the
recorded length of overcut in port 5 o’clock (8.1 cm) and 11 o’clock
(8.6 cm). The average of these two readings, 8.4 cm, is indicated as
the length of overcut at advance 67.
Table 2 summarizes the results of testing during the excavation
of southbound tunnel. Reported average EPB pressure is represent-
ing the average recorded pressure by the two installed pressure
sensors in the TBM plenum at spring-line of the tunnel (Fig. 9).
As you can see from Table 2, the results of testing from advance
67 to advance 631 are quite consistent. The two readings in ports
5 and 11 o’clock show slightly different readings; however, there
is not consistent pattern, e.g., the invert overcut is not consistently
less than the crown overcut. As the data in Table 2 confirms by
reducing the face pressure, the applied pressure to the testing de-
vice was reduced as well.
The result of testing for advance 684 is presented in Fig. 10. The
reason for the large measured overcut in port 11 o’clock of advance
684 and low measured overcut in port 5 o’clock is because the copy
cutter in the left side of the TBM is used in this location in order to
guide the TBM through the curved alignment. A free-air man-entry
cutterhead inspection was performed at advance 684. The inspec-
tor confirmed the 13–14 cm of measured overcut at the left side of
the shield (port 11 o’clock) because of using copy cutters and 5–
6 cm of overcut in the right side of the shield (port 5 o’clock). In
addition the inspector reported around 7.5 cm as the real remained
length of the gauge cutter which confirms the previous testing re-
sult at advance 631. In addition, at the end of the tunneling and re-
moval of the cutterhead, a detailed measurement was conducted
on the gauge cutters remained length. The measurement showed
7.4 cm as the maximum length of the gauge cutters.
Please note that the first test is being performed after 102 m of
tunneling and after passing through the most abrasive ground
through the alignment. This portion of the alignment mostly con-
sists of an abrasive ground with high quartz content (42%), and
284 E. Alavi Gharahbagh et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 38 (2013) 279–286

Fig. 8. The results of testing for advance 291, after 443 m of tunneling.

Soil Abrasion Testing (SAT) value of 18 ± 6. So, based on the test re- Table 2
sults and available data in the GBR, it is concluded that the most of The results of testing by using the optimized device in southbound tunnel of the U230
the wear that happened to the gauge cutters (1.8 cm of wear) was project.

during the excavation of this section of the tunnel and after that Advance Mining Measured Average Ave EPB Ave test
wear rate was very low. no. length overcut (cm) (cm) pressure pressure
(m) (bar) (bar)
At 11 At 5
o’clock o’clock
4. Alternative testing system 67 102 8.6 8.1 8.4 1.2 2.1
195 297 8.1 7.6 7.9 1.7 2.2
291 443 7.9 8.1 8 2.0 3.4
A simple, less expensive testing system was used during the
415 632 7.9 8.1 8 2.2 3.4
excavation of the Northbound tunnel of U230 project in order to 478 728 7.4 7.4 7.4 1.3 2.3
confirm the hypothesis that the relationship between pressure 555 846 7.4 7.1 7.3 1.6 2
and penetration depth can be used to measure the length of over- 631 962 7.4 7.4 7.4 1.3 2.0
cut and therefore length of gauge cutters. A simple tie rod hydrau- 684a 1042 13.4 5.6 9.6 0.6 1.8

lic jack was used to overcome the pressure. A standard DCP a

The copy cutter was used in this advance in order to guide the system in the
hardened cone tip with angle of 60° and tip base diameter of curved alignment of the tunnel.
 E. Alavi Gharahbagh et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 38 (2013) 279–286
Fig. 9. Location of two pressure sensors at the spring-line of the TBM plenum
(yellow circles), Red circles display the location of four pressure sensors on top and
bottom of the plenum. (For interpretation of the references to color in this figure
legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
Fig. 10. The results of testing for advance 684, 1042 m of tunneling.
285
2 cm was welded to the rod of a tie rod hydraulic cylinder. A tape
measurement was attached to the base of the cone in order to
monitor the overcut length. A pressure gauge was installed on
the pump in order to monitor the force required to push the testing
device through the overcut zone and finally a sealing system was
designed and attached to the cylinder (Fig. 11).
In several locations during the excavation of the Northbound tun-
nel, the testing device was used to measure the length of the overcut
and during the only man-entry inspection stop the length of the
gauge cutter was measured and compared to the results of testing.
In order to perform the test, two operators are required. One of
the operators reads the penetration distance from the tape mea-
surement as the cone penetrates through the pipe, overcut and in-
tact ground continuously and the other operator records the
pressure corresponding to the penetration distance. The pressure
is applied such that the probe moves slowly outwards with the
penetration rate of 2.5 cm/5 s. When the pressure increases signif-
icantly the test is stopped. The locations of performed tests are at
advance 256 (after 390 m of excavation), advance 395 (after
286 E. Alavi Gharahbagh et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 38 (2013) 279–286
Fig. 11. The new testing device for measuring the gauge cutters length.
Fig. 12. 7–7.5 cm (2.75–2.95 in.) of overcut was recorded in the inspection stop.
602 m of excavation), advance 470 (after 716 m of excavation),
advance 581 (after 885 m of excavation) and advance 690 (after
1052 m of excavation) of the Northbound tunnel. The final inspec-
tion was performed at advance 697, which was 11 m after the last
test location. Two to three tests were performed at each location.
All tests are performed in the port located at 5 o’clock.
An inspection was performed during advance 697, after 1062 m
of excavation of the Northbound tunnel. Around 7–7.5 cm of over-
cut was recorded through the inspection that completely con-
firmed the recorded results of the approach that was used during
the study (Fig. 12).
In this test, the uncertainty in pressure measurement is 1.4 bars
(20 psi) and the uncertainty in penetration distance is between 1.3
and 2.6 cm (0.5–1 in.). Comparison of the testing results with the
actual length of the gauge cutters measured directly during the
inspection stop confirmed the hypothesis that the length of gauge
cutters can be measured by using the proposed testing device but
the uncertainty is fairly high. Furthermore, the test was operator
sensitive since one of the operators records the length and the
other operator records the pressure and the time-lapse between
two readings can influence the final result. Despite the fact that
the original length of the gauge cutters was 10.2 cm (4 in.) and
1.3–2.6 cm (0.5–1 in.) of resolution was acceptable for demonstrat-
ing the feasibility of this study, however in many TBMs the length
of gauge cutters are very short in order of 10–30 mm which re-
quires higher resolution and overcut CPT testing device will pro-
vide better results in compare to the alternative testing device.
5. Conclusion
Cutterhead maintenance is usually required when the gauge
cutters wear down to the shield diameter. In soft ground pressur-
ized shielded TBMs, inspection of gauge cutters usually involves
complete stoppage of the operation by performing man-entry
inspection in free air or in hyperbaric intervention. This can be a
dangerous, costly, and time consuming process. In this study, a no-
vel approach was developed to monitor gauge cutter wear by con-
sidering the relationship between the overcut length and length of
the gauge cutters. The results of the proposed approach for indicat-
ing the length of the gauge cutters used during the excavation of
the northbound and southbound tunnels of University Link Light
Rail (contract U230) confirmed the hypothesis that the length of
gauge cutters can be measured by measuring the length of the
overcut. The approach developed allows rapid and frequent inspec-
tion, i.e., possible during any TBM stoppage such as ring builds. In
addition, it allows remote monitoring of gauge cutters length, i.e.,
minimizing the number of times that human-entry inspection (in
free-air or hyperbaric intervention) to the unpleasant environment
of the cutterhead chamber is required.
One possible limitation to this approach stems from the loca-
tion of the measurements approximately 3.6 m behind the cutter-
head. If there were convergence of the excavated ground behind
the face as a result of the overcut, then this measurement approach
would affect gauge cutter wear estimation.
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