THE EFFICIENCY TEST OF A NEW TRENCH EXCAVATOR FOR SOFT ROCK MASS BY USE OF A SPEED CONTROL TYPE EDGE EXCAVATION SYSTEM

Abstract

This paper presents the efficiency test results of a new trench excavator for soft rock mass, which adopts an edge excavation mechanism due to a rotary and penetration speed control system. The trench excavator has a main conical drum mounting spirally a lot of discs, which moves downward and rotates to rip rock segments from stairlike edge part of soft rock mass. As the results, it was observed that the thrust and torque of the trench excavator depends on the penetration speed per round and the uniaxial compressive strength of rock material, and the excavation speed should be controlled as large as possible for a given soft rock mass to get a minimum specific energy or a high efficiency of excavation.