Sludge discharge pipe blockage monitoring system

Abstract

To provide a sludge discharge pipe blockage monitoring system capable of easily identifying blockage locations in a sludge discharge pipe.SOLUTION: A sludge discharge pipe blockage monitoring system of the present invention comprises sludge discharge means for intermittently discharging sludge 13 from a tunneling machine that excavates the ground, a sludge discharge pipe 9 connected to the sludge discharge means, a sludge suction and soil discharge device for discharging the sludge 13 in the sludge discharge pipe 9 outside a tunnel, a plurality of sensors 17 installed at predetermined intervals in the sludge discharge pipe 9 along the flow direction of the sludge 13 for monitoring the flow state of the sludge 13, and means 18 electrically connected to the sensors 17 for notifying or displaying sections that are blocked or may become blocked.SELECTED DRAWING: Figure 2

Description

[Technical field]

[0001] The present invention relates to a blockage monitoring system for a mud discharge pipe that discharges mud discharged from a tunneling machine to the outside of a tunnel in a mud jacking method and a mud jacking method. [Background technology]

[0002] The thick mud jacking method involves pumping high-concentration mud water into the cutter chamber of a tunneling machine, the front of which is sealed off by a bulkhead, and then mixing the excavated soil and high-concentration mud water in the cutter chamber to obtain mud, which is then applied to the tunnel face, maintaining mud pressure against the earth and water pressure and stabilizing the tunnel face while excavating with the cutter, and constructing a pipe by pushing and pressing in the jacking pipe using the thrust of a push jack installed in the shaft (Patent Document 1). The thick mud jacking method differs from the thick mud jacking method in that a jack is installed behind the tunneling machine and used to push the tunneling machine in to excavate.

[0003] In both the mud jacking method and the mud shield method, the excavated soil that becomes mud in the cutter chamber is usually discharged intermittently into a mud receiver at the rear of the tunneling machine by utilizing the pressure in the cutter chamber. The mud is then transported by vacuum suction from the mud receiver through the mud discharge pipe to the mud storage tank above the starting shaft by a suction device installed on the ground, where it is stored.

[0004] 4 is a schematic diagram showing the state of sludge transportation in the sludge discharge pipe 100. As shown in the figure, in the sludge discharge pipe 100, the sludge 101 is intermittently transported by vacuum suction in the direction indicated by the arrow, and an air phase 102 is interposed between adjacent sludges 101, 101. [Prior art documents] [Patent documents]

[0005] [Patent Document 1] Patent No. 5537850 Summary of the Invention [Problem to be solved by the invention]

[0006] In vacuum suction transport of sludge 101 as shown in Figure 4 (hereinafter simply referred to as suction transport), if the balance between the sludge 101 and the air phase 102 is lost or the sludge 101 separates, the sludge discharge pipe 100 is likely to become clogged. 5(a) to (f) show a typical clogging mechanism of the sludge discharge pipe 100. As shown in FIG. 5(a), when the sludge discharge 101 is continuously sucked and transported, the inner surface of the sludge discharge pipe 100 dries, and the friction between the inner surface of the sludge discharge pipe 100 and the sludge discharge 101 increases, so that the sludge discharge 101 is likely to adhere to the inner surface of the sludge discharge pipe 100. Then, as shown in FIG. 5(b) and (c), the flow of the sludge discharge 101 slows down, and gravel 103 (pebbles, etc.) separates from the sludge discharge 101. If the separation of the gravel 103 further accelerates (FIG. 5(d)), the sludge discharge 101 and the gravel 103 move separately, and the amount of gravel 103 left behind in the sludge discharge pipe 100 increases as shown in FIG. 5(e). As a result, as shown in FIG. 5(f), the left gravel 103 becomes a mass and causes a blockage (the blockage point is indicated by symbol C).

[0007] When the sludge discharge pipe 100 becomes clogged, it is necessary to stop the excavation work, remove the sludge discharge pipe 100 from the part where the clogged part C is located, and remove the lumped gravel 103 to release the blockage. However, it is not easy to identify the clogged part C. That is, when the inside of the sludge discharge pipe 100 becomes clogged, the sludge discharge pipe 100 is generally struck with a rubber hammer or the like, and the clogged part C is identified from the striking sound, but if the construction length is long, it takes time and effort to identify the clogged part C. Moreover, the amount of excavation decreases due to the stoppage of the excavation work for several hours to a day. In addition, there is a concern that striking the sludge discharge pipe 100 may damage the sludge discharge pipe 100.

[0008] An object of the present invention is to provide a sludge discharge pipe blockage monitoring system that can easily identify the location of a blockage in a sludge discharge pipe. [Means for solving the problem]

[0009] In order to solve the above problems, the sludge discharge pipe blockage monitoring system of the present invention comprises: A mud discharge means for intermittently discharging mud from a tunneling machine that excavates the ground; A sludge discharge pipe connected to the sludge discharge means; A mud suction and soil discharge device for discharging the mud in the mud discharge pipe to the outside of the mine; A plurality of sensors are installed at predetermined intervals in the sludge discharge pipe along the flow direction of the sludge, for monitoring a flow state of the sludge; and a means for notifying or displaying a section that is blocked or may be blocked, the means being electrically connected to the sensor. Effect of the Invention

[0010] According to the present invention, a plurality of sensors are installed at a predetermined interval in the sludge discharge pipe, and the sections where the sludge is flowing and the sections where the sludge is blocked are detected, and the blocked sections are notified or displayed, so that the location of the blockage can be easily identified. In addition, by grasping the strength of the sludge flow, it is possible to identify sections that may become blocked and take measures before they become blocked. Therefore, the decrease in the amount of excavation due to the stop of excavation work is reduced. [Brief description of the drawings]

[0011] [Figure 1] 1 is a schematic diagram showing a sludge drainage pipe blockage monitoring system according to one embodiment of the present invention; [Diagram 2] FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view showing a state in which a sensor is installed in a sludge discharge pipe in FIG. [Diagram 3] FIG. 13 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the function of the sensor for monitoring blockage of the sludge drain pipe. [Figure 4] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram showing a sludge discharge pipe for transporting sludge. [Diagram 5] 13(a) to 13(f) are diagrams illustrating the mechanism by which the sludge drain pipe becomes clogged. DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

[0012] A sludge discharge pipe blockage monitoring system according to one embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to Figures 1 and 2. Note that the figures referred to below show simplified versions of the embodiment of the present invention for ease of explanation. Therefore, the sludge discharge pipe blockage monitoring system disclosed below may include any components not shown in the figures referred to. Furthermore, the dimensions of the components in the figures do not faithfully represent the actual dimensions of the components and the dimensional ratios of each component.

[0013] FIG. 1 shows an example of a mud-concentrated shield tunneling method to which a mud discharge measurement system according to an embodiment of the present invention is applied. In FIG. 1, 1 shows a tunneling machine, and a cutter 2 (face) is attached to the tip of this tunneling machine 1, and the cutter 2 is driven and rotated by a cutter motor 15 to excavate the ground. At the tip of the tunneling machine 1, a cutter chamber 3 sealed by a partition is provided in order to fill it with high-concentration mud water under pressure and excavate while stabilizing the cutter 2. The tunneling machine 1 excavates the ground by pushing it with a shield jack 10 installed behind it. When the tunneling machine 1 has excavated a certain distance, a segment 4 (a ring-shaped support material) is assembled at the rear. As the segment 4, a steel segment, a reinforced concrete segment, a composite segment, etc. can be used. The excavation cycle is: (i) excavate while pushing the existing segment with the shield jack as a reaction force, (ii) retract the shield jack and assemble a new ring of segments, (iii) excavate while pushing the new segment with the shield jack. This process is repeated to excavate. The tunneling machine 1 is equipped with a bending jack (not shown) for controlling the attitude and correcting the direction of the tunneling machine 1.

[0014] The high-concentration mud is produced by a mud-producing device (not shown) outside the starting shaft 5, and is pumped by a pump to the cutter chamber 3. The excavated soil is stirred and mixed with the high-concentration mud in the cutter chamber 3, where it becomes plastically fluid, becoming the high-concentration mud.

[0015] One end of a discharge pipe 6 for discharging sludge 13 in the cutter chamber 3 is connected to the cutter chamber 3. A soil discharge valve 7 is provided at the other end of the discharge pipe 6, and the soil discharge valve 7 is opened and closed to intermittently discharge the sludge 13 while stabilizing the cutter 2. The discharged sludge 13 is vacuum-sucked and flows into the sludge receiver 8. As the soil discharge valve 7, for example, an air-pressurized pinch valve can be used.

[0016] One end of a mud discharge pipe 9 is connected to the mud discharge receiver 8. The mud discharge pipe 9 passes through the inside of a segment 4 formed at the rear of the tunneling machine 1, extends from the starting shaft 5 to the outside of the tunnel, and has the other end connected to an earth discharge container tank 11. A mud discharge device 12 is connected to the earth discharge container tank 11. The mud discharge device 12 draws a vacuum inside the earth discharge container tank 11. As a result, the mud discharge 13 poured into the mud discharge receiver 8 is vacuum-sucked inside the mud discharge pipe 9 by the mud discharge device 12, and is suctioned and transported into the earth discharge container tank 11.

[0017] The waste soil container tank 11 is installed on the top of the waste soil storage tank 14 so as to be invertible, and can be inverted as shown by arrow A to transfer the waste sludge 13 accumulated inside to the waste soil storage tank 14.

[0018] As described above, the waste sludge 13 is intermittently discharged into the waste sludge receiver 8 by opening and closing the soil discharge valve 7, and is then sucked and transported from the waste sludge receiver 8 through the sludge discharge pipe 9. For this reason, an air space 16 is interposed between adjacent waste sludge 13 (see FIG. 2). The distance between adjacent waste sludge 13, i.e., the length of the air space 16, is preferably 5 times or more, and preferably 10 times or more, the length of the waste sludge 13. For example, the length of the air space 16 is 10 m or more, preferably 20 m or more, and 100 m or less, and preferably 80 m or less. This allows the waste sludge 13 to be smoothly sucked and transported.

[0019] If the sludge 13 is continuously sucked and transported for a long period of time, clogging of the sludge discharge pipe 9 is likely to occur. Since the sludge discharge pipe 9 has a maximum length of about 2.4 km, it is not easy to find the blockage where the clogging has occurred, and it takes a long time. Therefore, in this embodiment, as shown in Fig. 2, a plurality of pressure sensors 17 are installed at predetermined intervals in the sludge discharge pipe 9 to detect the pressure inside the sludge discharge pipe 9 and monitor the flow state of the sludge 13 inside the sludge discharge pipe 9.

[0020] 2, the pressure sensor 17 is attached to the tip of a detector tube 19 that is inclined in the opposite direction (upstream) to the suction transport direction (indicated by the arrow) in the sludge discharge pipe 9. Because the detector tube 19 is inclined upstream in this way, the pressure in the sludge discharge pipe 9 can be detected without being affected by the flowing sludge 13. The pressure sensor 17 may be attached to the outer surface of the sludge discharge pipe 9 without using the detector tube 19 as shown in FIG.

[0021] The multiple pressure sensors 17 are electrically connected to notification or display means 18 (hereinafter sometimes simply referred to as display means 18), and pressure data detected by each pressure sensor 17 is sent to the display means 18, where the pressure data for each pressure sensor 17 is compared and collated. The display means 18 notifies or displays the blocked section, and may be, for example, a personal computer and a display or indicator light connected to it, as well as a warning light, alarm, etc. The pressure data detected by the pressure sensor 17 is roughly divided into negative pressure and positive pressure. If the pressure data is negative pressure, it can be seen that the sludge discharge 13 is being suction transported. On the other hand, if the pressure data is positive pressure, it can be seen that the sludge discharge pipe 9 is blocked at the measurement point. Even if the pressure is negative, if there is a large pressure difference with the adjacent pressure sensor 17 on the downstream side, it can be determined that there is a blockage or that there is a high possibility of blockage.

[0022] 3 is an explanatory diagram for explaining the function of the clogging monitoring system for the sludge discharge pipe 9 using the pressure sensor 17. As shown in FIG. 3, among the multiple pressure sensors 17 connected to the sludge discharge pipe 9 at a predetermined interval, when the pressure sensor 171 among them indicates a negative pressure and the adjacent pressure sensor 172 on the upstream side indicates a positive pressure, it is found that the section B between the pressure sensors 171 and 172 is clogged with gravel 20 and the sludge discharge 13 is not flowing. Therefore, the position of the blockage can be identified by checking the condition of the sludge discharge pipe 9 by removing the sludge discharge pipe 9 in the section B between the pressure sensors 171 and 172, for example.

[0023] Moreover, by monitoring the transition of the pressure data of each pressure sensor 17, it is possible to grasp the strength of the flow of the waste sludge 13 in each section, so that it is possible to take action before a blockage occurs.

[0024] Therefore, unlike the conventional method, it is not necessary to take time to check the location of blockage in the sludge discharge pipe 9, but it is possible to know the location of likely blockage in real time, and even if a blockage occurs, the location of the blockage can be identified immediately. For example, whereas it usually takes several hours to a day to identify the location of likely blockage or the location of the blockage, in this embodiment, it can be identified in about one hour.

[0025] The interval at which the pressure sensors 17 are connected is not particularly limited, but may be 10 to 150 m, for example, 50 m or 100 m. This makes it possible to easily identify a blocked section, and shortens the time required to identify the blocked section.

[0026] The sensor for detecting the blockage of the sludge discharge pipe 13 is not limited to the pressure sensor 17, and similar effects can be obtained by using an ultrasonic sensor, an infrared sensor, a vibration sensor, a weight sensor, a temperature sensor, etc. The ultrasonic sensor, infrared sensor, vibration sensor, weight sensor, temperature sensor, etc. can be attached at predetermined intervals to the outer surface of the sludge discharge pipe 9, for example, in the same manner as the pressure sensor 17.

[0027] An ultrasonic sensor (ultrasonic flowmeter) transmits ultrasonic waves through the sludge discharge pipe 9 into the flowing sludge 13, and determines the flow condition of the sludge 13 inside the sludge discharge pipe 9 based on the change in frequency of the reflected sound waves, thereby identifying sections that are blocked or may be blocked. The infrared sensor detects thermal radiation (infrared rays) emitted from the sludge 13 to determine the state of flow of the sludge 13 inside the sludge discharge pipe 9 and identify sections that are blocked or may be blocked. When the sludge 13 flows through the sludge discharge pipe 9, the vibration is intense, so the vibration sensor detects the change in vibration and identifies the section that is blocked or may be blocked. The weight sensor detects a change in weight in the sludge discharge pipe 9 between when sludge 13 is flowing through the sludge discharge pipe 9 and when the pipe is blocked, and thereby identifies sections that are blocked or may be blocked. When sludge 13 is flowing, the temperature inside the sludge pipe 9 drops due to the wind speed caused by suction, but the temperature drop is small in the blocked section, so the temperature sensor can identify sections that are blocked or may be blocked. The rest is the same as the above-mentioned pressure sensor.

[0028] Although the embodiment of the present invention has been described above, the sludge pipe blockage monitoring system of the present invention is not limited to the above embodiment, and various modifications and improvements are possible. For example, in the above embodiment, the thick mud shield tunneling method as shown in Figure 1 was described, but the present invention can also be applied to the thick mud jacking method in the same manner as the thick mud shield tunneling method. [Explanation of symbols]

[0029] 1 excavator 2 Cutter 3 Cutter chamber 4 Segments 5. Starting Shaft 6 Discharge pipe 7 Soil discharge valve (sludge discharge means) 8 Mud collector 9 Sludge drainage pipe 10 Shield Jack 11 Soil discharge container tank 12 Sludge absorption and removal equipment 13 Sludge removal 14 Soil discharge storage tank 15 Cutter motor 16 Air Phase 17 Pressure Sensor 18 Display means (notification or display means) 19 Detector tube 20 Gravel 100 Sludge drainage pipe 101 Sludge removal 102 Air Phase 103 Gravel

Claims

1. a mud discharge means for intermittently discharging mud from a tunneling machine that excavates the ground; a sludge discharge pipe connected to the sludge discharge means; a mud suction and soil discharge device for discharging the sludge in the sludge discharge pipe outside the mine; a plurality of sensors installed at predetermined intervals in the sludge discharge pipe along the flow direction of the sludge, for monitoring the flow state of the sludge; A sludge discharge pipe blockage monitoring system comprising: a means electrically connected to the sensor for notifying or displaying a section that is blocked or may become blocked.

2. The sludge drain pipe blockage monitoring system according to claim 1 , wherein the sensor is a pressure sensor, an ultrasonic sensor, an infrared sensor, a vibration sensor, a weight sensor, or a temperature sensor.

3. The sludge discharge pipe blockage monitoring system according to claim 2 , wherein the pressure sensor measures a change in pressure at an installation location within the sludge discharge pipe.

4. A sludge discharge pipe blockage monitoring system as described in claim 2 or 3, wherein the pressure sensor is installed in a detection pipe branching off from the sludge discharge pipe, and the detection pipe is inclined upstream with respect to the flow direction of the sludge within the sludge discharge pipe.

5. 3. A sludge discharge pipe blockage monitoring system according to claim 1, wherein the sensors are installed at intervals of 10 to 150 m in the sludge discharge pipe.

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