Abstract
The objective of this study is to investigate experimentally the steady state excavation performances under constant cutting depth, especially the specific cutting energy, of a disc cutter bit in a free edge part of mortar specimen. Here, the tangential, lateral and normal forces acting on the disc cutter bit having three tip angles and the amount of debris were measurd for several cutting spaces and cutting depths. As a result, it was observed that the specific cutting energy, i. e. the ratio of the rotation work of the disc cutter bit and the amount of debris, increased with increment of cutting depth, took a minimum value at tip angle of π/4 rad and decreased with increment of cutting space.
