Systems to bore or tunnel through various geologies in an autonomous or substantially autonomous manner can include one or more non-contact boring elements that direct energy at the bore face to remove material from the bore face through fracture, spallation, and removal of the material. The systems can automatically execute methods to control a set of boring parameters that affect the flux of energy directed at the bore face. Systems can further automatically execute the methods to trigger an optical sensor to capture images at the bore face, generate temperature profiles, identify spall fragments and hot zones and/or adjust a set of boring controls. For example, the system can execute methods to adjust a standoff distance between the system and the bore face, and adjust power and/or gas supply to the non-contact boring element.

A system for mining material in an underground tunnel, comprises a rail on the roof of the tunnel. A tram is supported on the rail and is movable along the rail. The tram has a conveyor for moving material along the length of the tram. Material is transferred to the tram by a loader which is also supported on a rail and movable along the rail. The conveyor has a ramp with a loading conveyor for transporting material upwardly along the ramp. Material is discharged from an upper end of the ramp onto the tram conveyor.

The invention discloses a method for analyzing the expansive stress and expansive strain of tunnel surrounding rock, including: (1) determining the surrounding rock state of the tunnel surrounding rock before expansion and the surrounding rock state after expansion; (2) according to the determined state of the surrounding rock, determining the expansive stress and expansive strain of the tunnel surrounding rock before expansion, and determining the expansive stress and expansive strain of the tunnel surrounding rock after expansion; (3) according to the surrounding rock state of the tunnel surrounding rock after expansion, the expansive deformation radius of the tunnel surrounding rock is determined, so as to determine the expansive deformation displacement of the tunnel surrounding rock. The invention introduces the expansive behavior characteristics of the tunnel surrounding rock into the analysis of the expansive stress and expansive strain of the tunnel surrounding rock of the expansive rock tunnel, which can truly reflect the changes of the expansive stress and expansive strain of the tunnel surrounding rock during the expansion process, and can realize the quantitative calculation of expansive stress and expansive strain on the state change of surrounding rock.

The present disclosure relates to a half-cast mark identification and damaged flatness evaluation and classification method for blastholes in tunnel blasting, including the following steps: S1-2: photographing first and second contrast images as well as a half-cast mark image after blasting; S3-6: performing denoising, gray-scale processing and binary processing on the above images, and identifying a boundary of a half-cast mark in each of the images; S7-9: determining a flatness damage variable, a quantitative relation among an area of a half-cast mark region, the damage variable and a fractal dimension, and a damage value of the half-cast mark image; S10-11: forming five-dimensional (5D) eigenvectors to obtain multi-dimensional digital information features of the images; and S12-13: selecting eigenvectors of 60 images as training data to input to a naive Bayes classifier (NBC), and taking eigenvectors of remaining 30 images as classification data to input the above well-trained NBC for classification.

A shield method includes the steps: providing a first cylindrical frame 31 at a position where an entrance 12 is to be formed in an inner surface of an earth retaining wall 11 of a shaft 1; excavating a horizontal hole 5 in the underground by a shield machine 2, and sequentially adding and building, in the excavation direction, a plurality of segments 4 on an inner diameter side of the horizontal hole 5 while forming the entrance 12 in the shaft 1; temporarily stopping water from a gap between the entrance 12 and the shield machine 2, and removing excavated soil and pieces 6 that enter the first cylindrical frame 31 as the entrance 12 is formed; and coupling a second cylindrical frame 32 having a sealing member 35 attached thereto to an inner open end of the first cylindrical frame 31.

An advanced geological prediction method and system based on perception while drilling, and relates to advanced geological prediction. The solution includes: acquiring drilling parameters during drilling; obtaining physical and mechanical parameters of tunnel surrounding rocks by inversion based on drilling parameters; acquiring rock slag or powder based on flushing fluid collected during drilling; acquiring geochemical characteristic parameters of rock slag or powder; and obtaining at least one adverse geology recognition result and surrounding rock classification result using a pre-trained deep learning model, and realizing advanced geological prediction. Combined with advanced geological drilling, the solution reflects geological characteristics from changes of physical and mechanical properties of tunnel surrounding rocks and changes of geochemical characteristic parameters. Advanced prediction of geology ahead of a tunnel face is realized by collection and analysis of drilling parameters and flushing fluid during advanced drilling and the fusion of big data and a deep learning algorithm.

An apparatus and method for designing a blasting sequence for a drilling pattern of a round. The apparatus (11) is configured to assist selecting one or more drill holes (3) for each time delay of the blast. The apparatus calculates burst volume (V.sub.B) for the selected drill hole set (34) and ensures that previously blasted free volume (V.sub.F) can receive it when being fired. The apparatus may also take into account burst angles burst distances and ground vibrations when suggesting the drill hole sets.

A device for detecting a content of critical gas in a mining chamber of a tunnel boring machine includes a separation module by which a fluid fed in via an extraction line connection is cleaned of solid and liquid components. A gas line arrangement arranged downstream of the separation module in the flow direction of the fluid carries the fluid, including substantially only gaseous components, through a pressure reducer and through a flow control valve of a metering module by which the gas to be analyzed can be delivered in a controlled manner assisted by a double diaphragm pump and a pressure stabilizer to a gas analysis unit even at high pressures in the cavity.

In a tunnel boring machine with a shield skin (106) extending in a longitudinal direction, a sensor unit (118) for detecting convergences has a number of hydraulic distance sensors (121) equipped with an extendable probe (124) with extension path measurement. By virtue of the distance sensors (121), the distance between the shield skin (106) in the area of the relevant distance sensor (121) and the surrounding rock mass (103) can be detected as a distance value, so that the thickness of an annular gap (115) can be determined. The distance sensors (121) are arranged in the longitudinal direction of the shield skin (106) at a measuring distance which corresponds to a typical ring width of a tubbing (112). A central unit evaluates the distance values of the distance sensors (121) to determine convergences.

Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) are known that comprise a large metal cylindrical shield fronted by a rotating cutting wheel and containing a chamber where the excavated soil is deposited (and optionally mixed with slurry for extraction, depending on the type of geological/soil conditions). However, TBMs have various disadvantages including the stop-start nature of their tunnelling, and that a single TBM cannot easily transition between different rock/soil types (especially heavily fractured and sheared rock layers). The invention provides a tunnelling shield provided with jet grouting tools arranged to project from a leading edge thereof. In this way, the quality of the geological material into which the tunnel is being excavated may be improved dynamically as part of the excavation process.