Clogging Assessment of Edmonton Clay

Chao Kang, Yichen Wu, Alireza Bayat

In the proceedings of: GeoEdmonton 2018: 71st Canadian Geotechnical Conference; 13th joint with IAH-CNC

Session: Tunnelling in Urban Environments

ABSTRACT: Clogging is one of the more common phenomena closely related to the tunnelling/drilling process, and it can cause delays in a s time schedules and lead to an economic loss. To assess clogging potential, semi-empirical and analytical approaches, and physical simulation methods are generally adopted. In this paper, the authors try to evaluate the clogging potential of Edmonton clay using an apparatus that can capture the main characteristics of tunnel boring machines (TBMs). Before the test, soil properties are investigated based on conventional geotechnical tests, including sieve analysis, Atterberg limit tests, and XRD tests. Then clogging tests are carried out, and results are analyzed. Clogging test results are also compared with the assessment results from a semi-empirical diagram proposed by other researchers to assess the clogging potential. It is indicated that results from the apparatus are consistent with that from the semi-empirical diagram. Meanwhile, the apparatus can take the drilling characteristics into consideration. Therefore, the apparatus is able to assess the degree of clogging for Edmonton clay with higher accuracy. The application of the new apparatus can be extended to evaluate the performance of conditioned soils.

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Cite this article:
Chao Kang; Yichen Wu; Alireza Bayat (2018) Clogging Assessment of Edmonton Clay in GEO2018. Ottawa, Ontario: Canadian Geotechnical Society.

@article{geo2018Paper449,author = Chao Kang; Yichen Wu; Alireza Bayat,title = Clogging Assessment of Edmonton Clay ,year = 2018}