Rapid finite element modeling method of TBM gripping-thrusting-regripping mechanism

Abstract

During the static finite element analysis of gripping-thrusting-regripping mechanism, in order to avoid modeling repeatedly in different positions within the whole tunneling range, all components of the mechanism are divided into two types of sub-modules, i.e. the motive sub-modules and fixed sub-modules according to the variations of geometric and physical parameters. The contact elements between sub-modules connected by motion pairs are counted as interfaces. Based on this, the modeling methods of all types of interfaces are proposed respectively under SAMCEF software environment, the transformation matrixes from local coordinates of sub-modules to global coordinate are derived and the mathematic model generating finite element analysis models of the mechanism in different positions rapidly is established. Finally, the proposed method is validated through simulation.