Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 142 (2023) 105407

Contents lists available at ScienceDirect

Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology

incorporating Trenchless Technology Research
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tust

Discharge behavior of spherical and rock chip mucks by screw conveyors in

TBM: Physical model experiments and DEM simulations
Gi-Jun Lee a, Tae-Hyuk Kwon b, *
a
Disposal Safety Evaluation Research Division, Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI), Daejeon 34057, South Korea
b
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST), Daejeon 34141, South Korea

A R T I C L E I N F O A B S T R A C T

Keywords: The discharge of muck through a screw conveyor system plays a crucial role in ensuring safe and cost-effective
Discrete element modeling tunneling with earth pressure balance tunnel boring machines (EPB-TBM). However, the discharge mechanism of
EPB-TBM chip-type rocky mucks through a screw conveyor has not been well examined. Therefore, this study investigates
Screw conveyor
the discharge behavior of rock chips through a screw conveyor by using a 3D discrete element model (DEM).
Rock chip
Muck discharge
Numerical simulations are conducted with rock chip particles of various sizes, as well as spherical particles, while
varying the inclination angle, screw pitch length, and rotational speed of the screw conveyor. The simulation
results show that the relative size between the muck particles and pitch has a significant effect on the discharge
rate, and an optimal ratio of pitch to flight diameter is suggested. The particle-level analysis reveals distinctive
particle discharge paths and a velocity distribution of muck particles along the screw axis. The study proposes the
ratio of the screw pitch to the maximum particle size as the primary design parameter to predict the discharge
rate. This is because large particles play a critical role in determining the discharge rate. The study highlights the
usefulness of 3D DEM-based simulation as a tool to investigate discharge behavior of particulate materials
through a screw conveyor. Moreover, it advances our understanding of rock chip-type muck discharge behavior
during TBM excavation, providing guidance for screw conveyor design and feedback during TBM operation.

1. Introduction
Discharge of mucks plays an important role in safe and economical
tunneling by using tunnel boring machines (TBM), and the incapability
of muck discharge poses a major risk in effective TBM excavation (Jung
et al., 2011; Hyun et al., 2015). The earth pressure balance TBM (or EPB-
TBM hereafter) widely uses a screw conveyor system for muck
discharge, and its operation and control have a pronounced effect on the
excavation performance of EPB-TBM because the amount of mucks
remaining in the chamber affects the earth pressure balance. Therefore,
it is important to understand the discharge mechanism of mucks through
a screw conveyor.
Previous researches have mostly investigated the discharge of soil
mucks by screw conveyors through laboratory experiments (e.g., Merritt
and Mair, 2006; Peila et al., 2007; Kim et al., 2011; Avunduk and Copur,
2018) and numerical simulations (e.g., Talebi et al., 2015; Jin et al.,
2023). Merritt and Mair (2006) and Peila et al. (2007) have performed
experiments on discharge behaviors of sandy soils and clayey soils,
respectively. A numerical study by Talebi et al. (2015) has investigated
the transport and flow of soil mucks within a screw conveyor using the
computational fluid dynamic (CFD). By contrast, TBM excavation in
hard rocks is reported to generate platy- or chip-shaped rock particles.
As the muck particle size increases to the order of centimeters, often
bigger than gravels, the numerical model needs to capture the charac­
teristics and motion of mucks at a particle level. However, the discharge
behavior of chip-type rocky mucks still remains poorly examined.
Therefore, this study explores the discharge behavior of rock chips by
a screw conveyor through 3D discrete element model (DEM). A series of
numerical simulations were conducted with rock chip particles of
various sizes as well as spherical particles to examine the effect of par­
ticle shape and size. The input parameters used in DEM were calibrated
and validated with small-scale physical experiments. Rock chips are by-
products of the TBM excavation, and no cohesion between rock chips
was assumed. The engineering design of a screw conveyor requires to
determine the geometry and position angle (inclination angle) of the
screw conveyor as well as the mechanical capacity of the motor, such as
the rotational speed range and maximum torque. Thus, additional set of
DEM simulations was performed while varying the inclination angle,

* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: t.kwon@kaist.ac.kr (T.-H. Kwon).

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2023.105407
Received 23 June 2022; Received in revised form 6 September 2023; Accepted 9 September 2023
Available online 16 September 2023
0886-7798/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-
nc-nd/4.0/).
G.-J. Lee and T.-H. Kwon Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 142 (2023) 105407

Fig. 1. Particle models used in DEM.

screw pitch length, and rotational speed of the model screw conveyors.
4 √̅̅̅̅̅ 3
The simulation results were further analyzed for particle-level discharge Fn = E* R* δ2n (1)
3
paths along the screw conveyor and then the lower and upper bounds for
the maximum discharge rate were suggested for given sizes of particles ( )
( )
1 − v2j
and screw pitch. 1
=
1 − v2i
+ (2)
E* Ei Ej
2. Numerical model construction
and
2.1. Hertz-Mindlin contact model 1 1 1
= + (3)
R* Ri Rj
This study used the simplified Hertz-Mindlin contact model for DEM
simulations. The Hertz-Mindlin contact model is based on the Hertzian where Fn is the normal force between sphere particles, E* is the equiv­
elastic contact model between sphere particles for the normal force and alent Young’s modulus, vi is the Poisson’s ratio of the i-th particle. R* is
normal displacement (Hertz, 1881) and the Mindlin contact model for the equivalent radius of the two contact particles, and δn is a length of
the tangential force and tangential displacement (Mindlin and Der­ normal overlap between two particles. The Hertz-Mindlin contact model
esiewicz, 1953). In the simplified Hertz-Mindlin contact model, the in a tangential direction is expressed, as follows:
normal components are estimated, as follows. √̅̅̅̅̅ 1
Ft = − 8G* R* δ2n δt (4)

and
Table 1 ( )( )
1 2(2 − vi )(1 + vi ) 2 2 − vj 1 + vj
Input parameters for DEM simulations. = + (5)
G* Ei Ej
Parameter Particle Screw conveyor

Density [kg/m3] 2800 8000 where Ft is the tangential force between sphere particles, G* is the
Poisson’s ratio [-] 0.2 0.3 equivalent tangential modulus, and δt is a length of tangential overlap
Young’s modulus [GPa] 10 200 between two particles.
Coefficient of restitution [-] 0.84a 0.86a
Coefficient of static friction [-] 0.7b 0.5a
Coefficient of rolling friction [-] 0.2c 0.2c

Note: a Imre et al. (2008); b Beste et al. (2004), Lafountain and Dunn (1974); c

Teffo and Naudé (2013).

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Table 2
Configuration of the screw conveyor system.

Full-scale model DEM model(1:2 model) Physical model(1:4 model)

Screwconveyor Shaft diameter (mm) 140 70 35

Screw pitch, Pscrew (mm) 400 100, 200, 400 100
Pscrew/FD ratio 1 0.5, 1, 2 1
Flight diameter, FD (mm) 415 208 104
Flight thickness (mm) 5 2.5 1.3
Casing diameter (mm) 424 212 106
Length (mm) 6693 3346.5 1673.3
Chamber Length (mm) – 350 300
Width (mm) – 400 400
Height (mm) – 800 400

Note: The numerical model was constructed at a scale of 1:2 to the full-scale model, and the physical model was designed at a scale of 1:4 to the full-scale model.

Fig. 2. Screw conveyor test setup.

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2.2. Model construction

2.2.1. Particles – Spherical particles and rock chip particles

This study generated two types of particles: spherical particles and
rock chip particles. First, spherical particles with the diameters of 60
mm, 40 mm, and 20 mm were generated, and named after their shape
and size, i.e., SPH60, SPH40, and SPH20, respectively. Second, one
representative rock chip shape was determined after the natural shape of
rock chips from TBM excavation. Then, three classes of rock chip par­
ticles were modeled by clustering 18 small spheres, and they have the
volumes equivalent to the spherical particles, as shown in Fig. 1.
Thereby, rock chip particles with the maximum lengths of 131.5 mm,
87.7 mm, and 44.1 mm were generated, i.e., RC60, RC40, and RC20,
respectively. Table 1 shows the basic properties for the particles and
frictional parameters for DEM simulations, and these were kept consis­
tent throughout this study.

2.2.2. Screw conveyor

For DEM numerical simulations, the screw conveyor model was
constructed by downscaling a real-scale screw conveyor used in an EPB-
TBM with a diameter of 3.54 m at a scale ratio of 1:2, as shown in Table 2
(Lee et al., 2019). The benchmark screw conveyor model had a casing
diameter of 425.2 mm and a casing length of 6693 mm. In the casing, the
screw had a flight diameter (FD) of 415 mm, a screw pitch (Pscrew) of 400
mm, and a shaft diameter of 140 mm. The pitch-to-flight diameter ratio
(Pscrew/FD) of this benchmark model is approximately 1. Accordingly,
the screw conveyor model used in DEM simulations had all the di­
mensions downscaled to 1:2; the flight diameter, screw pitch, and shaft
diameter were 207.5 mm, 200 mm, and 70 mm, respectively (Table 2).
In addition, the screw pitch varied from 100 mm, 200 mm, and to 400
mm, and hence the pitch-to-flight diameter ratio (Pscrew/FD) from 0.5 to
2 to examine the effect of the screw design on muck discharge behaviors.
In addition, the simulation of muck discharge behavior requires a
chamber which contains a pile of mucks to be discharged by a screw
conveyor. We designed a box-shaped chamber which was 0.8 m high,
0.35 m long, and 0.4 m wide. When muck particles were deposited to the
top, this size of chamber supplied a sufficient amount of mucks for
simulation. The discharge simulations used the initially generated pile of
Fig. 3. Comparison between the DEM simulations and the scaled physical tests
muck particles without refilling new particles, which lasted 25 s. The
with the spherical particles of 20 mm at (a) 0◦ and (b) 20◦ inclination angles.
total volume of muck particles in the chamber is approximately 0.05 m3,
and the cumulative discharged particle volume was less than 0.012 m3 at
glass beads with a diameter of 10 mm were discharged by the screw
maximum. During the discharge simulation, the muck discharge
conveyor. One load cell was installed under the bottom of the chamber,
continued for 25 s which caused only a volume reduction in the chamber
which monitored the weight change of glass beads in the chamber with
less than 25%. The insertion part of the shaft was set as 200 mm long,
time. With the known particle density, this allowed the estimation of the
and this allowed one pitch in contact with mucks for the pitch-to-flight
discharge rate Q, the volume of the muck removed from the chamber per
diameter ratio (Pscrew/FD) of 1, which followed the general screw
unit time (e.g., m3/min). As the scales differed in the physical and nu­
conveyor design of practical EPB-TBM. In addition, the position angle
merical models, the discharge rate Q was normalized with the maximum
(or inclination angle) of the casing varied from 0◦ , 10◦ , 20◦ , and to 30◦ ,
discharge rate Qmax for direct comparison, and it is referred to as the
respectively. Additional DEM input parameters are necessary to capture
normalized discharge rate Q/Qmax. Here, the maximum discharge rate
the interactions between the screw conveyor and the particles, the
Qmax is defined, as follows:
particles would experience rolling, sliding, and bouncing from the cas­
ing wall, shaft, and flights. This study assumed the screw conveyor made π( )( )
Qmax = ⋅ D2f − D2s ⋅ p − tf ⋅N (6)
of stainless steel, and the input parameters were chosen from previous 4
literature, as listed in Table 1 (Imre et al., 2008; Beste et al., 2004;
where Df is the screw flight diameter, Ds is the shaft diameter, tf is the
Lafountain and Dunn, 1974; Teffo and Naudé, 2013). Again, these were
screw flight thickness, p is the pitch, and N is the rotational speed of the
kept consistent throughout this study.
screw conveyor.
The normalized discharge rates Q/Qmax obtained from the physical
2.3. Model validation
model tests with 10 mm glass beads were compared with those from the
DEM simulation result with the spheres with a diameter of 20 mm
The numerical model and the input parameters were validated with
(SPH20), as shown in Fig. 3. At the inclination angle of 0◦ and the
the scaled physical model tests. A screw conveyor model was con­
rotational speed of 10 rotations per minute (RPM), the Q/Qmax values
structed at a scale of 1:4 to the full-scale physical model and at a scale of
were remarkably consistent each other, as 0.34 in the physical model
1:2 to the numerical model, as shown in Fig. 2. The screw was fabricated
test and 0.33 in the DEM simulation (Fig. 3a). At the inclination angle of
with stainless steel, and it had the flight diameter of 104 mm, the pitch of
20◦ and the rotational speed of 10 RPM, Q/Qmax showed a good agree­
100 mm, and thus the pitch to diameter ratio of 1. The model tests were
ment as 0.29 in the physical test and 0.28 in the DEM simulation,
carried out at the inclination angle of 0◦ and 20◦ , respectively, in which

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Table 3
Summary of simulation cases.
Main variable Case Muck particle Screw conveyor

Particle shape Particle volume Inclination angle Screw Rotational speed (RPM)
(cm3) (◦ ) pitch
(mm)

Particle shape and size SPH20-0-1-10 Sphere 4.20 0 200 10

SPH40-0-1-10 Sphere 33 0 200 10
SPH60-0-1-10 Sphere 113 0 200 10
RC20-0-1-10 Chip 4.20 0 200 10
RC40-0-1-10 Chip 33 0 200 10
RC60-0-1-10 Chip 113 0 200 10
Rotational speed RC20-0-1-20 Chip 4.20 0 200 20
RC20-0-1-30 Chip 4.20 0 200 30
Screw pitch length SPH20-0-0.5 Sphere 4.20 0 100 10
SPH20-0-2 Sphere 4.20 0 400 10
RC20-0-0.5 Chip 4.20 0 100 10
RC20-0-2 Chip 4.20 0 400 10
Inclination angle SPH20-10-1 Sphere 4.20 10 200 10
SPH40-10-1 Sphere 33 10 200 10
SPH60-10-1 Sphere 113 10 200 10
RC20-10-1 Chip 4.20 10 200 10
RC40-10-1 Chip 33 10 200 10
RC60-10-1 Chip 113 10 200 10
SPH20-20-1 Sphere 4.20 20 200 10
SPH40-20-1 Sphere 33 20 200 10
SPH60-20-1 Sphere 113 20 200 10
RC20-20-1 Chip 4.20 20 200 10
RC40-20-1 Chip 33 20 200 10
RC60-20-1 Chip 113 20 200 10
SPH20-30-1 Sphere 4.20 30 200 10
SPH40-30-1 Sphere 33 30 200 10
SPH60-30-1 Sphere 113 30 200 10
RC20-30-1 Chip 4.20 30 200 10
RC40-30-1 Chip 33 30 200 10
RC60-30-1 Chip 113 30 200 10
Additional case RC(PSD)-20-1 Chip PSD 20 200 10

Note: The simulation case is named after its simulation condition: ShapeSize-Inclinationangle-Pitch(-RPM).

respectively (Fig. 3b). This comparison suggests that the constructed
DEM model and the chosen input parameters effectively capture the
particle-to-particle, and particle-to-screw frictional behaviors during
muck discharge.
2.4. Simulation cases
A series of numerical simulations were conducted while varying
various parameters, as shown in Table 3. The effect of rocky muck
characteristics was explored while varying the particle size (20, 40, or
60 mm in equivalent diameter) and shape (sphere or chip), and the effect
of mechanical condition of the screw conveyor was examined by varying
the inclination angle (0, 10, 20, or 30◦ ), rotational speed (10, 20, or 30
RPM), and screw pitch of the screw conveyor (Pscrew/FD = 0.5, 1, or 2).
The simulation case of 20 mm spheres with the inclination angle of 0◦ ,
the rotational speed of 10 RPM and the screw pitch of 200 mm (i.e.,
Pscrew/FD = 1) was set as the baseline case, and according to its simu­
lation condition it is named as SPH20-0-1. A total of 31 cases were
simulated with an additional case which examined the discharge rate
when rock chip mucks had a certain particle size distribution (i.e., Case
RC(PSD)-20-1).
In each simulation case, rock chip particles or spherical particles
with the same shape and size were filled in the chamber for the same
volume. Thereafter, the screw began to rotate at a given rotational
speed, which commenced discharge of the particles. While simulation,
the number of particles being discharged and their x-, y-, and z-co­
ordinates were monitored. For comparison of the discharge behaviors
among the numerical simulation results, the normalized discharge rate
Q/Qmax was particularly used.
3. Simulation results
3.1. Effect of particle shape and size
Fig. 4 illustrates the discharge rates of various particles when Pscrew/
FD is 1, the inclination is 0◦ and the rotational speed is 10 RPM. The
results show that an increase in the muck particle size causes a reduction
in discharge rate for both spherical and rock chip particles. For an
example, the normalized discharge rate Q/Qmax decreases from 0.33 for
20 mm spheres (SPH20) to 0.23 for 60 mm spheres (SPH60). This is
consistently observed for rock chip particles. It can be explained by the
increased wall effect with an increase in the particle size. As the particle
size increases relative to the pitch length and flight diameter, the wall
effect becomes more pronounced in particle packing, and hence, a
smaller number of particles is captured in one pitch interval. This wall
effect is that the local porosity is always greater near the wall than
within a particle pack. This is also confirmed by the porosity of the muck
particle packings in the chamber, as shown in Fig. 5, in which the
porosity in the chamber increases with an increase in particle size.
On the other hand, the results indicate that chip-type particles show
the lower discharge rate than spherical particles for a given particle
volume (Fig. 4). It appears that Q/Qmax is ~0.22 for RC20 and 0.33 for
SPH20, respectively. This also is explained by the packing porosity in
one screw pitch and in the chamber, as can be seen in Fig. 5. An increase
in particle angularity leads to an increase in the maximum porosity of
loosely packed granular materials (Cho et al., 2006), and therefore,
angular and elongated particles result in the lower packing porosity than
spherical particles if they are both loosely packed.

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Fig. 5. Effect of particle size and shape on packing porosity in the chamber.
The inset figure depicts the representative volume used for porosity estimation.
The plots show the temporal variations in porosity in the chamber during muck
discharge simulations. As the particle size decreases, the packing density in­
creases and the porosity decreases. The spherical particles (solid lines) shows
the greater packing density and the lower porosity than the chip-type particles
(dashed lines).

Fig. 4. (a) Cumulative discharge volumes with time, and (b) effect of particle
size and shape on the normalized discharge rate. The normalized discharge rate
(Q/Qmax) is defined as the volumetric rate (Q) divided by the maximum
discharge rate (Qmax). Herein, the maximum discharge rate (Qmax) is defined as
(π/4)⋅(flight diameter – shaft diameter)2⋅(pitch – flight thickness)⋅RPM, as
shown in Equation (6).

3.2. Effect of rotational speed of screw conveyor

The rotational speed of a screw conveyor is readily adjustable to

control the discharge rate of mucks from the chamber. Fig. 6 shows the
discharge rates of rock chip particles (RC20) when the rotational speed
varies from 10 to 30 RPM. The result indicates that the discharge rate Q
increases with an increase in the rotational speed. However, the
discharge rate is not exactly proportional to the rotation speed; Q in­
creases by 1.8 times when the rotational speed is doubled from 10 to 20
RPM, and Q increases by 2.6 times when the rotational speed increased
by three times from 10 to 30 RPM (Fig. 6b). Accordingly, the normalized
discharge rate Q/Qmax shows only a slight decrease from 0.22 at 10 RPM
to 0.19 at 30 RPM (Fig. 6b).

3.3. Effect of Pitch-to-flight diameter ratio Pscrew/FD

Transport distance of muck particles generally increases as the pitch

Fig. 6. Effect of rotational speed of the screw conveyor on discharge behavior:
length increases for a given rotational speed (Merritt and Mair, 2008).
(a) cumulative volumes of discharged rock chip particles, and (b) the discharge
The DEM simulation results confirm that this remains valid for spherical
rate and normalized discharge rate.
particles; an increase in the pitch length causes an increase in the
discharge rate Q for a given rotational speed, as shown in Fig. 7. On the
other hand, the simulations with rock chip particles show a contrasting

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result, where Pscrew/FD = 1 shows the highest discharge rate and Pscrew/
FD = 0.5 has the lowest discharge rate. This implies that the effect of
screw pitch and Pscrew/FD on discharge rate differs with the shape and
angularity of the muck particles. This can be further analyzed by
examining the number of contacts between the screw flight and particles
in the chamber because it determines the amount of particles to be
transported by the flight per rotation. Fig. 8 shows the number of con­
tacts between the flight and particles in the chamber. The results indi­
cate that the interaction between the screw and particles in the chamber
varies with the screw pitch. The number of contacts between the flight
and particles in the chamber appears to be the greatest when when
Pscrew/FD = 1 and the lowest when Pscrew/FD = 0.5. This is possibly
attributed to the relative size between the screw pitch and the rock chip
size. The rock chip RC20 is ~ 44 mm long and Pscrew is 100 mm for Pscrew/
FD = 0.5. Therefore, the pitch is relatively narrow, such that only limited
particles are in contact with the screw flight, and it in turn results in the
lowest discharge rate Q (Fig. 7a).
When normalized by Qmax, Pscrew/FD = 2 shows the lowest Q/Qmax,
owing to the increased volume per pitch interval, and a decrease in
Pscrew/FD causes an increase in Q/Qmax (Fig. 7b). However, Q/Qmax stays
more or less the same for Pscrew/FD = 0.5 and 1. Therefore, our simu­
lation results suggest that Pscrew/FD = 1 provides the most effective
discharge behavior for both spherical and chip-type particles.

3.4. Effect of inclination angle of screw conveyor

In TBM design, screw conveyors are generally installed with an

Fig. 7. Effect of pitch-to-flight diameter ratio (Pscrew/FD) on discharge
behavior: (a) cumulative volumes of discharged particles, and (b) the discharge
rate and normalized discharge rate.
inclination angle between 10 and 30◦ , and the inclination angle in­
creases (or steeper position) as the space available for a discharge system
is tighter. It is generally recognized that there is a tradeoff between the
inclination and discharge efficiency. Fig. 9 shows the discharge behav­
iors at various inclination angles. The results confirm that an increase in
the inclination angle reduces Q/Qmax and discharge efficiency. It is
because gravity causes more rolling-back of particles with the steeper
inclination angle, which reduces the discharge efficiency. Particularly
with spherical muck particles, as the particle size becomes close to the
pitch size, there is a significant drop in Q/Qmax when the inclination
angle increases from 10◦ to 20◦ (e.g., SPH40 and SPH60; Fig. 9b). This is

Fig. 8. (a) Configurations of screws with various pitch-to-flight diameter ratios Pscrew/FD, which denotes the contact area of the flight with orange color to estimate
the contact numbers with particles. and (b) temporal variations in the contact numbers between the flight and particles in the chamber. (For interpretation of the
references to color in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

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Fig. 10. Effect of mixed rock chip particles on discharge behavior: (a) the
particle size distribution of the mixed rock chip particles, (b) and the discharge
rate and normalized discharge rate at the inclination angle of 20◦ .

Fig. 9. Effect of inclination angle on discharge behavior: (a) the discharge rate,
~30 mm, and the maximum grain size D95 = ~50 mm. Using these rock
and (b) normalized discharge rate Q/Qmax for various inclination angles.
chips, additional DEM simulation is performed with a screw conveyor of
Pscrew/FD = 1 at the inclination angle of 20◦ and the rotational speed of
consistent with the previous experimental study by Kim et al. (2011),
10 RPM (i.e., RC(PSD)-20-1), and the result is compared to those with
which showed that the discharge rate for sands decreased with an in­
the uniformly sized particles, as shown in Fig. 10b.
crease in the inclination angle.
The result shows that the normalized discharge rate Q/Qmax is placed
Meanwhile, for rock chip particles, the effect of inclination angle
in between RC20 and RC40 (Fig. 10b). Although more than 50% of the
appears insignificant (Fig. 9b). This is due to the reduced effect of par­
particles are smaller than RC20, Q/Qmax of this rock chip group is less
ticle rolling (or rotational movement) in a rock chip pack and the
than that of RC20. This implies that the large particles have more in­
increased friction between rock chip particles and screw flight/casing
fluence on the resulting Q/Qmax than the small particles when the mucks
wall. As the particle becomes angular and elongated, the contribution of
show a certain size distribution. This also suggest that the size of large
sliding (shearing) movement to their total displacement (or transport)
muck particles relative to screw pitch heavily affects on the discharge
becomes greater while the contribution of rotational movement is
rate of rock chips.
reduced (Potticary et al., 2016). Accordingly, it is presumed that rock
chip particles are subjected to sliding rather than rolling, and hence it
4. Discussion
compensates the increased rolling-back effect with an increase in the
inclination angle. In addition, comparing to spheres, the flat face of platy
4.1. Particle movement path
chip particles is likely to induce the more contact points and the greater
contact area per particle. This would cause more frictional resistance
The DEM analysis allows tracking of the individual particle paths
against gravity-driven slippage in an inclined position.
within a screw conveyor during simulations, and thus the discharge
behaviors of muck particles are further explored with the paths of in­
3.5. Result of the rock chips with a particle size distribution dividual particles. Fig. 11 shows representative particle paths of SPH20,
the smallest spherical muck particles. The first case shows a spiral path
In addition, a group of rock chip particles with various sizes is along the flight of the screw conveyor, which is the widely recognized
generated to achieve the particle size distribution reported in Farrokh case (Fig. 11a). The other extreme case shows a particle follows a fairly
and Rostami (2008), as shown in Fig. 10a. The particle size distribution straight path with a minimal spiral motion (Fig. 11b). Lastly, there is an
shows the effective grain size D10 = 10 mm, the mean grain size D50 = intermediate case where a particle shows a spiral path with a larger

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G.-J. Lee and T.-H. Kwon Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 142 (2023) 105407
Fig. 11. Discharge tracks of the spherical particles for SPH20-0–1 in 3D graphs (a, b, c) and in side views (d, e, f).
pitch, which appears to be close to a straight path (Fig. 11c). Expectedly,
the less spiral and more straight path causes the faster discharge of
particles.
The velocity of individual particles at a specific time can be extracted
from DEM simulations. Fig. 12 shows the distributions of the particle
velocity to the discharge direction (vx) at a specific simulation time. It
appears that the vx distribution shows quite a wide distribution. And,
this distribution does not change much with time but it stays fairly
consistent (Fig. 12a and 12b). For SPH20 and RC20, vx ranges 0–0.08 m/
s, where the peak vx value is located at ~ 0.03 m/s. Here, it is confirmed
that particles near the peak vx value are the ones following the spiral
path along the screw flight. However, their distributions differ owing to
its shape; the vx distribution of rock chip particles show a narrower
distribution with less vx variation than that of spherical particles. It
implies that there are more rock chip particles being discharged through
a spiral path along the screw flight. It is attributable to their platy shape,
which readily causes a face-to-face packing during discharge. In the
larger particles (SPH40, SPH60, RC40 and RC60), the vx distributions
are found to be similar to those of SPH20 and RC20, respectively,
although the distribution shows more scattering due to the less particle
number. Apparently, the average vx value and peak vx value stay quite
consistent among the cases with different particle size. This result sug­
gests that not particle size but the particle shape has a profound impact
on the velocity distribution in the discharge direction. Only the number
particles being discharged decreases with an increase in particle size,
which causes a decrease in Q/Qmax, as previously seen in Fig. 4.
4.2. Ratio of screw pitch to longest particle length Pscrew/Dmax
Our simulation results indicate that both the relative size between
the particles and pitch has a profound effect on the normalized discharge
rate Q/Qmax (Fig. 4). The additional comparison between rock chips with
a particle size distribution (RC(PSD)) and uniformly sized rock chips
(RC20, RC40, RC60) suggests that particularly large particles plays a
critical role in determining Q/Qmax (Fig. 10). Accordingly, let us intro­
duce the ratio of the screw pitch (Pscrew) to the longest particle length
(Dmax), i.e., Pscrew/Dmax. Fig. 13 shows complied data on Q/Qmax versus
Pscrew/Dmax from the simulations with rock chips at Pscrew/FD = 1. In
addition, Table 4 summarizes the simulation results for the normalized
discharge rate Q/Qmax with various uniformly sized rock chips at Pscrew/
FD = 1 and 10 RPM. The result indicate that Q/Qmax primarily increases
with an increase in Pscrew/Dmax and the inclination angle has a minor but
negative effect on Q/Qmax. Therefore, the ratio of the screw pitch to the
9
maximum particle size Pscrew/Dmax is proposed as a primary design
parameter, and the upper and lower bounds for Q/Qmax can be drawn for
a given Pscrew/Dmax. Herein, if muck particles show a size distribution, it
is suggested to use D95 as the longest particle length Dmax, at which 95%
of the total particles are smaller than such size.
4.3. Validation to natural crushed rock chips and its implication
The crushed mucks from TBM excavation are expected to show a
particle size distribution rather than a uniform size. Therefore, the
suggested correlation between Q/Qmax and Pscrew/Dmax is cross-validated
with a scaled physical model test with crushed rock chips, as shown in
Fig. 14. We conduct a screw conveyor test with natural crushed rock
chips at the inclination angle of 20◦ and the rotational speed of 10 RPM.
The tested crushed rock chips have the size distribution from 15 mm to
20 mm with the mean grain size of ~ 18 mm and Pscrew/Dmax of 5.6.
The test result shows that Q/Qmax was 17.8%, as shown in Fig. 14c.
This Q/Qmax value falls in between the upper and lower bounds shown in
Fig. 13. The DEM simulation with Pscrew/Dmax = 4.5 at 20◦ resulted in the
Q/Qmax value of 17.3% (Table 4). The Q/Qmax value from the natural
rock chip test is slightly higher than the simulation result because of the
larger Pscrew/Dmax. The result suggests feasibility of estimating a possible
range of the normalized discharge rate Q/Qmax with the upper and lower
bounds if the longest particle length is known and a screw conveyor has
Pscrew/FD = 1, which is a widely used screw conveyor design. This can
provide better prediction and hence the better control on the discharge
rate during TBM tunneling operations.
As the amounts of mucks generated during TBM excavation is
determined by penetration rate and the TBM operation is limited by the
discharge rate of mucks. Therefore, the normalized discharge rate Q/
Qmax can be used as a preliminary baseline design parameter when
designing the screw conveyor system and operating TBM excavation.
With the TBM excavates and advances, the muck volume comes into the
chamber for time Δt is as follows:
πD2cut
Vin = ⋅PR⋅Δt (7)
4
where Dcut is the diameter of the cutterhead and PR is the penetration
rate. Then, the muck volume discharged by a screw conveyor from the
chamber for time Δt is as follows:
( )
π D2screw − D2shaft
Vout = ⋅Q/Qmax ⋅vRPM ⋅Δt (8)
4
G.-J. Lee and T.-H. Kwon Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 142 (2023) 105407

Fig. 12. Particle velocity distributions in the discharge direction: (a) for SPH20 particles and (b) for RC20 at different elapsed times (25, 57, 88.6 s elapsed), (c) for
SPH40, (d) for RC40, (e) for SPH60, and (f) for RC60. The particles in the screw conveyor casing are counted: N = number of particles, Nmax = maximum number of
particles. The velocity indicates the horizontal velocity in the x-direction.

where Dscrew is the diameter of the screw conveyor, Dshaft is the diameter
of the flight shaft, and vRPM is the rotational speed. The muck volume
deposited in the chamber stays constant when Vin is equal to Vout. The
geometric parameters of the cutterhead and the screw conveyor can be
easily obtained. Therefore, if Q/Qmax can be roughly assessible, the
maximum possible PR for the given maximum vRPM can be assessed. For
instance, an excessive chamber pressure can lower the TBM penetration
rate, and by contrast, a chamber pressure much smaller than the earth
pressure at the tunnel face may cause face collapsing. Control of the
rotational speed of the screw conveyor can adjust the chamber pressure
relative to the earth pressure. The presented results are expected to
provide a guidance for screw conveyor design and feedback during TBM
operation.
5. Conclusion
This study explores the discharge behavior of rock chips by a screw
conveyor through 3D discrete element model (DEM) while varying the

10
G.-J. Lee and T.-H. Kwon Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 142 (2023) 105407

• The number of contacts between the screw flight and muck particles
in the chamber plays an important role in discharge rate, and the
simulation result confirms that Pscrew/FD = 1 shows the highest
discharge rate for the tested rock chip particles. And, the discharge
rate is generally proportional to the rotational speed though an in­
crease in the rotational speed causes a minor reduction in the
discharge efficiency.
• The effect of inclination angle appears insignificant for elongated
and platy rock chips, while for spherical particles, an increase in the
inclination angle reduces Q/Qmax and discharge efficiency, attribut­
able to gravity-driven roll-back of particles.
• The DEM results reveal three distinctive particle paths: a spiral path,
a straight path, and an intermediate mixed path. The less spiral and
more straight path results in the faster discharge of particles.
Accordingly, mucks show a distribution of velocity during discharge,
which is affected by muck particle shape. The vx distribution of rock
chip particles shows a narrower distribution than that of spherical
particles.
• The ratio of the screw pitch to the maximum particle size Pscrew/Dmax
(or Pscrew/D95) is proposed as a primary design parameter to predict
Fig. 13. Effect of the pitch-to-maximum particle diameter ratio (Pscrew/Dmax) the discharge rate because particularly large particles play a critical
and inclination angle on the normalized discharge rate for rock chip particles role in determining the discharge rate. Accordingly, an increase in
when Pscrew/FD = 1 and RPM of 10. The discharge rate shows a power relation Pscrew/Dmax causes an increase in discharge rate.
with Pscrew/Dmax and the scaled physical test result with the crushed gravels is
superimposed with the fitting curves. The study demonstrates that 3D DEM-based simulation can be a
useful tool to investigate discharge behavior of particulate materials by a
screw conveyor. However, the presented DEM simulation has limitations
Table 4 on taking into consideration the effects of water, crushed fine particles,
Percentage of discharge rate to maximum discharge rate with conditions.
and chemical agents, such as viscous liquid polymers. Therefore, further
Pscrew/Dmax research is warranted to improve DEM simulation techniques as the
Inclination angle (◦ ) 4.5 2.3 1.5 PSD* mucks from TBM typically have a high-water content and contain
0 22.2% 12.6% 10.1% –
crushed fine particles less than 100 μm; and various types of chemical
10 17.4% 10.6% 8.7% – agents are added and mixed to the muck particles for better discharge.
20 17.3% 11.7% 6.7% 14.6% Still, the presented results advance our understanding on discharge
30 16.2% 12.7% 8.7% – behaviors of rock chip-type mucks from TBM excavation, and provide a
*
Note: Dmax for PSD case is assumed to be D95 of the muck particles. guidance for screw conveyor design and feedback during TBM
operation.
characteristics of muck particles and mechanical design of screw con­
veyors. The main findings are as follows. CRediT authorship contribution statement

• The relative size between the muck particles and pitch has a pro­
found effect on the discharge rate. The discharge rate decreases as
the particle size increases and the shape becomes more angular, due
to the increased wall effect and reduced packing porosity of the
mucks in the chamber.
Gi-Jun Lee: Writing – original draft, Methodology, Investigation,
Validation, Visualization, Data curation, Software. Tae-Hyuk Kwon:
Conceptualization, Methodology, Writing – review & editing.
Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial

Fig. 14. Result of the scaled physical test with the crushed rock chips: (a) particle shapes, (b) particle sizes, and (c) a change in the volume of crushed rock chips in
the chamber with time. The specific gravity of the crushed rock chips was estimated as 2.60 from the pycnometer tests. the slope of the data indicates the
discharge rate.

11
G.-J. Lee and T.-H. Kwon Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology incorporating Trenchless Technology Research 142 (2023) 105407
interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence
the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by the Korea Electric Power Corporation
(Grant R22XO05-11) and by the Korea Agency for Infrastructure Tech­
nology Advancement (KAIA) grant (21CTAP-C163693-01) funded by
the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport of the Korean
government.
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