Tunneling Fundamentals, Practice, and Innovations
End of June 2016, I was able to attend the annually offered Tunnel Short Course at Colorado School of Mines. This course stretches over four days and includes presentations from professional engineers, designers, contractors, and governmental agencies like L.A. Metro or Sound Transit from Seattle, WA in addition to hands-on labs each afternoon.
During the presentations, each aspect of tunneling was talked about - starting with how to choose the right excavation method, over risk management and site investigations, to tunneling in hard rock and in soft ground, with the finish about planning, safety and cost estimation. The hands-on labs in the afternoon were a welcomed break from all day sitting and I was able e.g. to execute an abrasivity test on rock which includes a pin, a small piece of rock which is scraped once for one second with the pin. Then the pin has to be analyzed with a microscope to measure the wear of the pin tip. The measurement can then be taken to compute an abrasivity number which indicates the hardness of the rock - 10 is very hard and 1 is very soft rock.
Other hands-on labs were all about rock cutting tools which you can find in front of tunnel boring machines, or all about shotcrete or soil conditioning for EPB TBMs
(earth pressure balance tunnel boring machines for soft soils).
Overall, this course is great for tunnel fanatics and those who like to be one.
Thanks for "reading in" and until the next time.
Stephie
Here are some impressions from the course and the labs I attended.
(f.l.t.r. Cutter head of a small TBM; Different cutters from "old age" to now; Geology trail - sandstone rock with layering; Presentation about TBMs; Different ground support systems - Shotcrete applied on steel mash, Steel ribs.)
Lucky me!
If you are one of my regular readers, you might recognize the words: world tunnel congress. Yes, I attended the congress in 2013 in Geneva, Switzerland and I wrote about it in several articles (link May 2013, link one and two of June 2013). I went with my former co-workers and we were making jokes about going to the San Francisco congress in 2016 since I will be living there anyway... Well, guess what? Okay, I am not living in San Francisco at the moment, but only an hour of airplane travel away and I was able to attend this great congress in April this year.
16th World Tunnel Congress, San Francisco, CA, USA
April 22 through 28, 2016
What was my purpose of going?
My purpose this time was mainly to connect with people in the field of tunneling, people that might be of help for my doctoral research - Tunnel crossing Fault zones - and to meet with people my academic adviser Dr. Scott Ashford connected me with. Secondly, I wanted learn about the subject of tunneling in earthquake prone areas.
How did I accomplish my purpose? Who did I meet and why were they important?
I actively engaged with industry groups, engineering companies, spoke with Professor Mooney from Colorado School of Mines, who will support me as an adviser in tunneling and who advertised the tunneling short course (you will hear about it in my next blog article). Further, I listened to interesting topics and obtained further connections with Japanese engineers and had follow-up emails about Japanese literature about tunneling in earthquake zones including fault lines.
What did I learn in general?
Through conversations with engineers from academia and industry, I learned that the subject of tunnel crossing fault zones is a very exciting subject of the future. And most of the tunnels constructed through fault zones are not constructed with an fault offset in mind. The main method of mitigation today is closure of the tunnel and reconstruction.
Who else did I meet?
Surprisingly, I met engineering friends from the time when I worked in Switzerland. And I met with a newly organized group of Women in Tunneling who held a meeting. I am hoping to be able to contribute to this group of female engineers.
And what am I doing now as a result of me going?
I am more and more convinced that my research subject - tunnel crossing fault zones - can answer or at least can start to answer questions many practicing engineers would like to know more about.
Wish me luck in my undertaking!
See you next time.
Stephie
