Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 96–106

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Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology

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Assessment method for clay clogging and disintegration of fines

in mechanised tunnelling
F.S. Hollmann, M. Thewes ⇑
Institute for Tunnelling and Construction Management, Ruhr-University Bochum, 44801 Bochum, Germany

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Shield tunnelling in fine-grained soils is frequently obstructed by clogging. The clogging risk of soils
Received 26 July 2012 depends on multiple mineralogical and soil-mechanical parameters. The existing approach of estimating
Received in revised form 14 February 2013 the clogging potential, which is derived from the indices of plasticity and consistency, has proven to be
Accepted 29 March 2013
beneficial for practical purposes. Furthermore, the disintegration of fines from a cohesive soil within free
Available online 4 May 2013
water, such as slurry, has also shown to have a major negative impact on shield tunnelling. Both risks
depend on the properties of the soils as well as the hydrogeological and operational conditions. Soils
Keywords:
can be transformed to critical consistencies for clogging depending on the extent of water being available
Atterberg limits
Clay
in the excavation process (ground water or support slurry). Reverse transformation into the natural con-
Clogging sistency during tunnelling is not possible. Measures to reduce clogging often involve artificial increase of
Disintegration the water content to obtain less critical consistencies. A new diagram allows for the quantification of
Fines changes in the water content and thus, estimating changes in the consistency of fine-grained soils under
Mechanised tunnelling different boundary conditions (availability of water).
Shield machine Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Stickiness
TBM

1. Introduction cohesion. While non-cohesive soils are usually excavated sepa-

Clayey soils have a tendency to trigger clogging effects, which
has a considerable impact on shield tunnelling performance.
Therefore, it is very important to take this property into account
in the geotechnical reporting. Until now, indications of the clogging
risk in practice were frequently based on the evaluations of clog-
ging of hydro-shield drives by Thewes (1999). It remained an open
question, if the existing method of estimating the clogging risk can
be extended to Earth Pressure Balance Shields or Open Face
Shields/TBMs. In this paper, we summarise the current findings
regarding the clogging tendency of soils and develop a new classi-
fication diagram, which is applicable for all types of shield
machines.
2. Shield tunnelling in sticky soils
In contrast to rocks, soils do not contain any binding minerals.
While non-cohesive soils (sand and gravel) are normally not sub-
ject to any binding forces, the grains in cohesive soils (clay, silt)
are bound by cohesion forces. Accordingly, soil excavation in shield
tunnelling is substantially different depending on the presence of
⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +49 234 3228061; fax: +49 234 3214310.
E-mail address: markus.thewes@rub.de (M. Thewes).
rately grain by grain, there are two thinkable excavation mecha-
nisms for cohesive soils.
Firstly, during tunnelling, the cutter rings of the discs are pressed
into the tunnel face, pushing the plastically deformable soil to both
sides where it is cut by the drag picks in the form of ‘lumps’ (Fig. 1).
Water can transform the consistency of the cut lumps and the soil at
the face into a sticky consistency, unless the soil is already sticky ow-
ing to its natural moisture content. In this case, if water is available,
uncritical soils can turn into sticky material.
Secondly, parts of the fine grains contained in the lumps or the
soil at the face may disintegrate and accumulate in the inflowing
groundwater or support liquid. Therefore, lumps with sticky outer
layers may occur (Fig. 2) besides dry soil lumps, sticky material and
sludge with accumulated fines.
In this context, clogging poses a higher risk to the tunnelling
process than disintegrated fine contents in suspensions. While
negative impacts induced by disintegrated fine contents only occur
at the final stage of the process (separation plant, water treatment,
disposal), clogging occurs throughout process from the excavation
at the tunnel face up to separation and transport for disposal. In
these cases, one and the same sticky material may create clogging
of the tunnelling system at different process stages. Primary clog-
ging may occur at the cutting wheel and will later cause secondary
clogging at sieves of the separation or at transfer points of con-
veyor belts (Fig. 3).

0886-7798/$ - see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tust.2013.03.010
 F.S. Hollmann, M. Thewes / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 96–106 97

Fig. 1. Tunnel face with groove (1) caused by disc cutter and surface (2) as cut by a
drag pick.

The degradation of clay lumps during slurry transport in pipes

is discussed by Leschinsky et al. (1992). While the effects of a high
concentration of fine contents in suspensions can be reduced with
high effort but in a controlled manner at the end of the process (e.g.
additional centrifuges, additional filter presses, suction vehicles),
clogging requires extensive measures at many parts of the process
and still poses a serious technical and economical risk (Thewes and
Burger, 2004, 2005). Thus, it is important to forecast the probabil-
ity of occurrence of the following cases: Fig. 2. Clay in shield tunnelling: (a) dry clay on conveyor belt. (b) Sliced clay lump
with natural core and sticky surface. (c) Clogging (C) between submerged wall and
 unaltered dry lumps (slightly or not sticky), cutting wheel (CW). (d) Clay sludge (S) with high fine contents below discharge
 lumps with sticky surface, opening of a screw conveyor (SC).
 sticky clogging material (clayey),
 disintegrated fine contents in liquids.
3. Relevant factors for the development of clogging
Laboratory investigations of clogging and the adherence be-
The ability of a clay to develop sticky behaviour that results in
tween clay and steel were investigated by Thewes (1999), Sass
clogging depends on a number of factors, which pertain to the type
and Burbaum (2008), Feinendegen et al. (2011) as well as Zumsteg
of soil, its grain-size distribution, the type of clay minerals, the
and Puzrin (2012).

Fig. 3. (a) Clogging at the front side of a hydroshield cutting wheel (top view). (b) Clogging of disc cutter housing. (c) Clogging of sieve mesh in a separation plant. (d) Clogging
at the transfer point of a conveyor belt.
98 F.S. Hollmann, M. Thewes / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 96–106
plasticity of the soil, its water content, and the presence of water.
In a thoroughly prepared geotechnical report, each of these factors
should be discussed if clogging of a TBM represents a significant
risk.
3.1. Grain-size distribution and soil type
Because there are no bonding forces holding the grains together,
non-cohesive soils cannot clog or turn into sticky material. Possible
dispersion of fines (silt and/or clay <5%) contained in a sand or
gravel can be estimated on the basis of the grain-size distribution.
In most cases, all clayey cohesive soils induce clogging and a high
concentration of fine contents in suspensions. The interdepen-
dency of the clogging risk and clay concentration has already been
described by various authors. Therefore, clays, silts and marls have
to be assessed based on additional properties. Experience gained at
construction sites shows that even small amounts of fine-grained
layers alternating with mainly medium- or coarse-grained soils
can cause clogging (e.g. loam-layers embedded in gravel banks).
In such cases, medium or coarse grains such as sand or gravel be-
come part of the clogging material and the fine-grained soils,
which did not show any tendency to wear beforehand, are trans-
formed into very abrasive material (Fig. 4). These risks increase
in proportion to the diameter.
3.2. Mineralogical composition
The amount of clay in terms of the grain size of clay
(<0.002 mm) in cohesive soils is not necessarily equivalent to the
mass fraction of clay minerals. Nevertheless, cohesive soils contain
significant amounts of clay minerals. They are characterised by a
small grain size, flaky mineral shapes and electrically charged sur-
faces. Above all, their mechanical behaviour is influenced by swell-
ing. Einstein (1996) differentiates between intracrystalline and
osmotic swelling. In the case of intracrystalline swelling, the inter-
layer cations are hydrated due to water being absorbed. This re-
sults in the mineral interlayer being widened. In osmotic
swelling, the cationic concentration of the mineral surfaces and
the surrounding liquid is balanced. This results in water being ab-
sorbed at the mineral surfaces of the clay. Pimentel (2003) gives
theoretical maximal values of strains and stresses for intracrystal-
line and osmotic swelling (intracrystalline swelling: stress
100 MPa, strain 100%; osmotic swelling: stress 10 MPa, strain 20%).
Fig. 4. Clayey clogging with embedded abrasive gravel (a) excavation chamber, (b) detail).
According to Thewes (1999), adhesion has been increasingly ta-
ken into account with soils that contain more than 10% of swelling
clay minerals. In this context, intracrystalline swelling minerals
(e.g. Montmorillonite) as well as the osmotically swelling Illite also
have to be taken into account, because Illite-rich clay developed
very high adhesion forces in his experiments. In practice, fre-
quently only the intracrystalline swelling minerals are classified
as ‘swelling’ minerals from a mineralogical point of view, although
according to Einstein (1996) also osmotic swelling is important for
clay behaviour in tunnelling. Experience gathered at construction
sites shows that besides Montmorillonite- also Illite- and even
sometimes Kaolinite-bearing clays can lead to massive clogging.
From a mineralogical perspective, Illite and particularly Kaolinite
are non-swelling clays.
While Montmorillonite due to its intracrystalline swelling has
the highest potential to cause clogging, also the other types of clay
minerals must not be disregarded. Illite has proven to cause clog-
ging and in laboratory tests has shown to develop high adhesion
forces. With Kaolinite, only low adhesion is measured in experi-
ments. Still, Kaolinite with stiff or hard consistency can cause mas-
sive clogging because large lumps of this clay could form blockages
in critical flow paths of a slurry-supported shield machine (The-
wes, 1999).
Since it was not possible to estimate the adhesion risk of Illite
and Kaolinite in the past, technical and economic problems have
arisen in several cases. In contrast to the mentioned clay minerals,
most other rock-forming minerals are not critical with regard to
clogging, since there are no electrical surface charges. Particularly
Quartz, Feldspar and Carbonate are uncritical for the development
of clogging.
3.3. Plasticity and consistency
Fine-grained plastic soils are defined based on the natural water
content (Wn), the liquid limit (WL) and the plastic limit (WP). With
increasing water content, hard cohesive soils change from very stiff
to stiff consistencies at the plastic limit and reach the plastic con-
dition. At the liquid limit, they leave the plastic condition and turn
from a very soft to a liquid consistency without significant remain-
ing cohesive binding. The plasticity index (IP) and the consistency
index (IC) are defined by the following equations:
IP ¼ W L  W P ð1Þ
 F.S. Hollmann, M. Thewes / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 96–106
IC ¼ ðW L  W n Þ=IP ð2Þ
The clogging tendency of soils can be analysed by using a com-
bination of the plasticity and the consistency index. In order to
estimate the clogging risk for hydro-shield tunnelling, Thewes
(1999) developed a diagram of clogging potentials for cohesive
soils based on empirical investigations. According to this diagram,
soils with a plasticity index of more than 20% and stiff to very stiff
consistency show the highest clogging potential. However, the dia-
gram was modified, since site experiences have shown that exten-
sive clogging occurs even in hard clays (Fig. 5). In these cases, the
presence of slurry in a hydro-shield transformed the previously
non-sticky clays into sticky material. The diagram allows for esti-
mating clogging risks by means of well-established soil parame-
ters. The limits of the different clogging potentials are defined
based on experiences gained at hydro-shield tunnelling sites as
well as the soil properties of these projects. The diagram refers to
the natural soil consistencies prior to excavation by the shield
machine.
More recent investigations also consider the consistencies of
the actual clogging material. Weh et al. (2009a) found especially
plastic soil with soft to stiff consistency to be a very sticky clogging
material in the case of an EPB shield that was driven in the open
mode. Laboratory research conducted by Feinendegen et al.
(2011) indicates that soft or medium consistencies are to be re-
garded as very critical. The quantity of clogging material and the
adhesion force, which was determined in clogging tests, decrease
to very soft as well as stiff consistencies. Own experiences of the
authors, gathered during various shield tunnelling projects using
shields in open as well as in hydro mode, substantiate 150 samples
of clogging material with predominantly soft and/or medium con-
sistencies (58%: soft/medium, 23%: very soft, 19%: stiff). A soft con-
sistency of material in the excavation chamber therefore is most
critical for clogging. Instead, when the sticky material in the exca-
vation chamber has a stiff consistency, there is comparatively less
clogging, because of the lower water content of the material. On
the other hand, when the consistency is very soft, the tendency
to clogging is also somewhat less, because the sticky material
has a reduced shear strength to withstand the mechanical forces
within the excavation chamber.
3.4. Availability of free water
With regard to shield tunnelling, the pore water (characterised
by natural water content or consistency index) as well as the freely
available water (groundwater inflow, support liquid, cleaning
water, conditioning water) have to be taken into account. When
Fig. 5. Modified clogging diagram for slurry-supported shield tunnelling according
to Thewes (1999).
99
estimating the clogging risk, similar importance as to the soil
parameters themselves is attached to the availability of free water
(Atkinson et al., 2003). Every cohesive soil with a clay content >10%
may be transformed into clogging material; however, the time re-
quired for this transformation depends on the natural consistency
and the availability of additional water. The more water is avail-
able during the tunnelling process, the higher is the probability
of natural consistencies becoming sticky.
The amount of free water depends on the hydrogeological sit-
uation as well as the boundary conditions of the tunnelling pro-
cess. Hydroshield tunnelling is characterised by a very large
amount of free water in relation to the amount of excavated soil
(virtually unlimited amount of water), due to the use of a support
slurry. Therefore, liquid supported shield tunnelling has a higher
tendency to suffer from clogging effects in clayey soils. Even soils
with very stiff to hard consistencies can be transformed into a
sticky consistency (Fig. 5). Inflowing ground water often occurs
in connection with open shields or EPB shields, which are oper-
ated in open mode. The ratio between water volume and exca-
vated soil not only depends on the inflow rate but also on the
inflow time and hence, the standstill time (e.g. tool change, main-
tenance shift, ring building time). Furthermore, it is influenced by
the diameter. Especially after long downtime periods, consisten-
cies in the excavation chamber may vary (starting with sludge
via sticky material up to dry muck with lumps). Weh et al.
(2009b) provide a detailed description of the correlation between
groundwater inflow and impacts on an EPB shield, which is dri-
ven in the open mode. EPB-shield tunnelling in the closed mode
may even require liquids to be added (water and/or foam) in or-
der to condition the excavated soil to a support medium. There-
fore, the availability of water also has to be considered to
estimate the clogging risk of the subsoil.
4. New clogging diagram
The first clogging diagram (Fig. 5) was developed through an
analysis of a large number of hydro- (or slurry-) shield drives in
clay. Also his laboratory adhesion tests of a steel surface on clay al-
ways involved extensive previous water contact. Accordingly, the
diagram is directly applicable for slurry-supported shield tunnel
drives. Based on evaluations of the consistency of actual clogging
material in the excavation chambers of various machine types, a
new generalised clogging diagram is developed, which can be used
for all shield types, such as slurry-supported machines, earth pres-
sure balance machines and open TBMs without active face support.
4.1. Development of the basic form of the diagram
In the first step of the development of a new indication diagram,
as proposed by Hollmann and Thewes (2011, 2012), a review is
conducted to determine whether the clogging potential diagram
by Thewes (1999) can also be applied to other shield types, such
as EPB- and open shields. The principle of using the plasticity index
can be directly applied to all shield machines, as this index is de-
fined by the characteristic liquid and plastic limit. Changes in the
water content do not have any impact on these parameters. In con-
trast, the consistency index changes depending on the available
water, which, in turn, depends on the type of the shield system.
By definition, the diagram (Fig. 5) is meant to be applied at slur-
ry-supported shield tunnelling projects with the mentioned high
availability of free water.
Open mode shield tunnelling without any ground water inflow
can be seen as the other extreme. In this case, clogging only occurs
if the natural consistency of the soil already shows a tendency to-
wards stickiness. Therefore, the clogging potential diagram (Fig. 5)
100 F.S. Hollmann, M. Thewes / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 96–106
Fig. 6. Clogging potentials for open mode shield tunnelling without water inflow.
can be modified accordingly by considering typical consistencies of
clogging material (Fig. 6). An open mode shield tunnelling project
without water inflow was not hindered by clogging in any note-
worthy way, although the soils were critical according to diagram
in Fig. 5. Furthermore, this classification corresponds well to the
results of Schlick (1989), who investigated the clogging behaviour
of clay during conventional earth moving works (without the influ-
ence of rain, comparable to open face shields without water
inflow).
The modified diagram, however, cannot be applied to open face
shields if a water inflow is available. In this case, soils with natu-
rally non-critical consistencies, according to the diagram, are
transformed into sticky consistencies. The multitude of boundary
conditions with different water availability renders any intermedi-
ate condition possible between the two extreme cases that are cov-
ered by the diagrams on clogging potential (Figs. 5 and 6). In this
context, it is not possible to develop a specific diagram for any pos-
sible boundary condition. It is not considered to be beneficial to
combine both diagrams in order to cover the critical weighting
for the entire range of consistencies between very soft and hard.
If water inflow or process water (e.g. cleaning) is expected during
Fig. 7. Basic form of the new diagram with soil sample ‘A’ and changes due to increasing water content.
open mode shield tunnelling, a comparative use of both diagrams
(Figs. 5 and 6) could be recommendable.
A new universally applicable diagram would have to comprise all
consistency fields that are critical during excavation (clogging: very
soft, soft and stiff; accumulation of fine content in a slurry: liquid),
since they are comparable for all shield tunnelling types under dif-
ferent boundary conditions. Furthermore, it must be possible to
quantify potential changes in soil. This would enable an estimation
how easily soil can be transformed into critical material. In order to
assess the influence of water during excavation, it would be ideal if
the water content could be quantified. Although the water content is
indirectly considered in the clogging potential diagrams (Figs. 5 and
6) by means of the consistency index, changes in the water content
cannot be illustrated in a scaled format. Depending on the combina-
tion of liquid and plastic limit, defined consistency changes require
different variation of the water content.
In the following sections, a new universally applicable diagram
is developed in several intermediate steps. It is based on the same
soil parameters as the previous clogging potential diagrams (Figs. 5
and 6). As mentioned above, problems during excavation are re-
lated to plastic or liquid consistencies. Therefore, the diagram is
based on the differences between the liquid and/or plastic limit
and the natural water content (x-axis: difference plastic limit  -
water content [WP  Wn], y-axis: difference liquid limit  water
content [WL  Wn]). Very stiff clay with high plasticity and high
clogging potential (soil sample A) is used as an example to enhance
understanding. The pair of values of the soil sample is shifted with-
in the diagram in proportion to increasing water content (Fig. 7).
Every soil marked in Fig. 7 has an identical plasticity index.
Thus, the line of the linked values with different water content cor-
responds to the contour line of the plasticity index. By changing
the equation of the plasticity index (Eq. (1)), the contour lines of
defined plasticity index can be presented in the diagram:
IP ¼ ½W L  W n   ½W P  W n  ð3Þ
½W L  W n  ¼ IP þ ½W P  W n  ð4Þ
The result is a set of curves of the following type:
y ¼ x þ IP ð5Þ
 F.S. Hollmann, M. Thewes / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 96–106 101

Fig. 8. Basic form of the new diagram with contour lines of the plasticity index.

The connections between the values Rewriting the equation of the consistency index (Eq. (2)) results
in the term below:
 are lines,
½W L  W n  ¼ ½W P  W n   ½Ic =ðIc  1Þ ð6Þ
 have a slope of ‘1’ and are thus parallel, and
 cross the y-axis at the plasticity index (Ip). The consistency limits can be defined by the following
equations:
The diagram is limited by the line of the plasticity index IP = 0,
Ic ¼ 0:00 ! ½W L  W n  ¼ 0ð! liquid limitÞ ð7Þ
which crosses the zero point, since the plasticity index by defini-
tion must be positive (Fig. 8). Ic ¼ 0:50 ! ½W L  W n  ¼ ½W P  W n  ð8Þ
Based on the definition of the axes, a soil with a water content
at the liquid limit meets the x-axis (WL  Wn = 0) and a soil with a Ic ¼ 0:75 ! ½W L  W n  ¼ 3  ½W P  W n  ð9Þ
water content at the plastic limit meets the y-axis (WP  Wn = 0).
Ic ¼ 1:00 ! ½W P  W n  ¼ 0ð! plastic limitÞ ð10Þ

Fig. 9. Basic form of the new diagram with contour lines of the plasticity index (black) and consistency limits (red). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure
legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
102 F.S. Hollmann, M. Thewes / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 96–106

Fig. 10. Basic form of the new diagram with a scale to estimate the changes in the water contents (range between blue dotted lines: 5% steps of absolute changes in the water
contents). (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)

Ic ¼ 1:25 ! ½W L  W n  ¼ 5  ½W P  W n 
This way, it is possible to introduce the ranges of consistency to
the diagram (Fig. 9). Soils with different plasticity index but the
same water content are not positioned on the same contour line
of the water content in the diagram. However, a certain change
in the water content delivers the same absolute value for every soil
at each position in the diagram. This can be proven by another soil
sample (very stiff soil with low plasticity). Therefore, it is possible
to introduce a scale to the diagram which refers to a change in the
water contents (Fig. 10).
4.2. Final diagram for use in practise
After marking the consistencies that are prone to clogging and
increased dispersion of fines, the changes in the water content that
ð11Þ lead to a critical condition of the soil can be taken from the dia-
gram. Therefore the new classification diagram (Fig. 11) can be
used for all types of shield tunnelling, since different availabilities
of water can be quantified.
In the diagram, each soil ‘moves’ downwards to the left with
increasing water content (starting at its natural water content).
The movement should normally be parallel to the plasticity index
of the soil; however, it may tend towards a smaller plasticity index
if coarse soils occur at the face (e.g. sandy material will become
part of the clogging) and are mixed into the fine-grained soil by
the mixing action in the excavation chamber of a shield machine.
In order to assess soils with a higher plasticity index, additional
contour lines with plasticity indices >70% can be added to the dia-
gram and the scale of the axes can be extended (Fig. 12). However,
until now, this extended part of the diagram could not yet be

Fig. 11. Universal classification diagram for critical consistency changes regarding clogging and dispersing.
 F.S. Hollmann, M. Thewes / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 96–106
Fig. 12. Extended Universal classification diagram for critical consistency changes with value for Aalbeke clay (at increasing water content in 10% steps).
verified by own experiences of the authors due to a lack of data
from tunnelling sites. For illustration purposes, values of the highly
plastic Aalbeke clay, presented in Van Marcke and Laenen (2005),
is added. Soils with low plasticity cannot be presented very well
in the extended scale of Fig. 12, so the scale of the axes should
be selected as desired.
5. Discussion of the application of the classification diagram
The new classification diagram (Fig. 11) allows for some general
conclusions to be drawn for all types of shield tunnelling: the smal-
ler a change of the water content is necessary to reach a critical
consistency, the less water that is freely available is required to
achieve this change. Thus, it is more likely that soil is transformed
into clogging material the closer it is positioned to the critical field
depicting strong clogging in the diagram. Hindrances by clogging is
more likely to occur the wider the range of water content is within
the critical consistencies. Therefore, the clogging risk rises with an
increasing plasticity index, since the critical plastic consistencies
are covered by a variety of possible water content.
Soils with smaller plasticity index need very specific boundary
conditions in order to become sticky, since plastic consistencies
are only achieved within a small range of water content. With
increasing water content, the liquid field is reached soon, so fines
dispersing from the cohesive fabric becomes quite likely, resulting
in increased separation effort for slurry-supported shield machines.
Reverse transformation of the clogging material back to dryer
consistencies of the in situ soil is not possible with the tunnelling
machine. Measures to reduce clogging are often related to artifi-
cially increase the water content in order to disintegrate parts of
the sticky material within water (e.g. cleaning) or at least add
water to soften the consistency of a clay. The higher the plasticity
index, the more effort will be necessary, since the water content
has to be increased even further to leave the sticky consistency.
5.1. Earth pressure balance (EPB) machines
The new classification diagram is particularly useful when esti-
mating the conditioning effort with water for EPB machines. In the
103
closed mode, the excavated soil itself is used to support the face.
Fine-grained soils with very soft to soft consistencies (Ic: 0.4–
0.75) can be directly used as a support medium (Maidl et al.,
2012). Consistency indices <0.4 are normally not intended, since
the pressure-tightness of the screw conveyor may not be ensured
(Thewes and Budach, 2010), whereas soils with consistency indices
>0.75 are too stiff to be used as support medium. Therefore, condi-
tioning of stiff soils is necessary. One typical way is to add water.
Thus it may be necessary to transform these soils into consisten-
cies that are more prone to clogging.
Additives, like foam, are often used to minimise clogging as well
to constitute a proper support medium. Research results as well as
experience from practice on the influence of additives on the stick-
iness of soils have been widely discussed in literature (i.e. by Lang-
maack and Feng, 2005; Zumsteg and Puzrin, 2012; Wallis,
1996a,b). In addition, further chemical manipulations as well as
the application of electro-osmosis based on theoretical and exper-
imental works have been discussed by Thewes (1999) and in more
detail by Spagnoli et al. (2011). In order to extend the application
field of EPB machines to non-cohesive soils, detailed research re-
sults were published by Vinai et al. (2008), Peila et al. (2009),
and Thewes and Budach (2010). This paper neither focuses on
the use of additives to minimise clogging nor on the conditioning
non-cohesive soils. It is restricted to the problems of conditioning
of cohesive soils with the aim to change its consistency. A detailed
literature overview onto soil conditioning for EPB machines includ-
ing summaries of earlier work of other researchers were given by
Vinai et al. (2008).
A recent EPB project in Germany with involvement of the
authors suffered from severe hindrances by extensive clogging.
Owing to ecological boundary conditions, additives were to be
avoided and/or kept to a minimum. Therefore, conditioning usually
involved the addition of water. The shield operator identified the
most beneficial amount of water to be added by ‘testing’. In this
case, the lowest possible consistency of the support mud, which
still guaranteed a pressure-tight screw conveyor, proved to be
most beneficial to keep clogging to a minimum. During tunnelling
of a closed mode section of the same project, the support mud was
sampled every day at the opening of the screw conveyor in order to
determine the water content at an on-site laboratory. The water
104 F.S. Hollmann, M. Thewes / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 96–106

Fig. 13. Increase in water content as a result of conditioning with water.

content of the mud samples could be used to estimate the increase
in the soil’s water content at the face, as it transforms the soil into a
support medium as a result of water being added. Fig. 13 shows the
required increase of the water content to transform a natural soil
into an EPB mud. Starting with a natural water content of about
8%, at the beginning of the closed mode section the water content
had to be increased by approx. 15% and at the end by approx. 23%
to reach the desired consistency for efficient EPB operations.
In practice, this approach had to be handled very carefully due
to the importance of a pressure-tight screw conveyor. The new
classification diagram provides the option to estimate the changes
to the water contents for conditioning in closed mode EPB-tunnel-
ling, provided that the typical range of support medium consisten-
cies according to Maidl et al. (2012) is also plotted in the diagram
(Fig. 14).
Thus, the diagram can help estimate whether it is necessary to
add water during conditioning in order to achieve a more favour-
able consistency for any type of cohesive soil. It should be used
as a first approximation of the water volume, as in some cases, only
parts of the excavated soil were transformed into ideal support
mud, while lumps kept the old consistency. The most beneficial
consistency of the support medium should be as low as possible
in order to minimise clogging and keep down the torque of the cut-
ting wheel and screw conveyor. Higher consistencies of support
mud can be of economic interest: In some cases, however, clogging
is accepted to a certain degree in order to reduce water consump-
tion or problems with disposal. Advantages and disadvantages of
different strategies should be reviewed and compared at an early
project stage. Furthermore, the diagram shows that the higher
the plasticity index the less complicated should be the condition-
ing of support mud. Regulating the mud of soil that has a low plas-
ticity index to the desired consistency field is very difficult due to
the small range of possible water content. In other words, the mud
consistency indicated by Maidl et al. (2012) is left very abruptly,
turning into a consistency that is no longer pressure-tight while
a comparatively small amount of water is being added.
Note that the diagram can help to roughly estimate the water
addition to achieve desired non-sticky consistencies in the support
mud. It is neither applicable for non-cohesive soils nor for estimat-
ing the effects of foam or other chemical additives.

Fig. 14. New classification diagram with the typical consistency range of EPB support mud.
 F.S. Hollmann, M. Thewes / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 37 (2013) 96–106
Fig. 15. New classification diagram with soil samples of an open face shield with no respectively little clogging.
5.2. Open face shields
The new classification diagram is useful when estimating the
effects of expected water for open face shields, since it is possible
to determine the critical increase in the water content. In this con-
text, the focus is placed on the question as to whether the availabil-
ity of water is sufficient for becoming critical to the system.
Transformations of naturally non-sticky soils to clogging material
can be limited by reducing the freely available water. Measures in-
volve lowering the ground water table or pumping the flowing
water down to the excavation chamber during standstills. The dia-
gram could help dimension such measures. For example, an open
face shield project was not hindered in any noteworthy way by
clogging owing to a partly lowered groundwater table and thus re-
duced water inflow. Residual water inflow of 0.1–0.4 l/s did not
trigger massive clogging under the boundary conditions of
11.2 m diameter and average ring building times of 30 min. The
comparably small water volume was not sufficient for the exca-
vated soil to be transformed into sticky consistencies (Fig. 15).
5.3. Slurry-supported hydro-shield machines
Due to high availability of free water, which is induced by the
support slurry, all excavated cohesive soils may undergo a high in-
crease in water content and are thus transformed into lower con-
sistencies. The new diagram (Fig. 11) can be particularly used to
estimate whether cohesive soils tend towards clogging or rather
towards fines being dispersed in the support slurry. The special
boundary conditions allow for estimations of the clogging risk
based on the original diagram (Fig. 5) as well as the new diagram
(Fig. 11).
6. Conclusion
A new diagram was developed to evaluate the clogging poten-
tial of clay soils for all types of tunnelling machines. The new dia-
gram is based on a combined evaluation of water content and
plasticity, enabling the assessment of the consequences when the
water content of a clayey soil is changed during excavation. The
105
old and widely used clogging diagram by Thewes and Burger
(2004) only judges the properties of an in situ clay regarding the
particular operating conditions of a slurry-supported shield,
whereas the new diagram shows the relevant critical consistency
ranges of actual cloggings in the excavation chamber. When a soil
is depicted in the new diagram, it becomes clear if this soil already
has a critical consistency for clogging or which increase of its water
content could transform the soil into the critical consistency range.
Varying availabilities of water can be judged regarding their result-
ing effect on the consistency and its criticality for clogging. The
presence of water will depend on the type of shield machine and
presence of ground water. Accordingly, the new diagram can be
used to roughly estimate the amount of water needed to condition
hard or stiff clays in EPB tunnelling. For open shield drives (open
shield or EPB in open mode) the effect of ground water inflow or
of dewatering measures can be judged. Further, the diagram allows
for slurry-supported shield drives to assess, if clays will be likely to
cause clogging or if they are rather likely to disperse in the slurry,
resulting in higher separation effort. The authors would like to
encourage that during future projects with tunnelling machines
in clayey ground, samples will be taken of the soil in its natural
state at the tunnel face, of cloggings in the excavation chamber
and of EPB muds after water conditioning, to perform water con-
tent and plasticity index tests. With this data the applicability of
the diagram in practice could further be substantiated.
Acknowledgements
The presented research has partly been supported by the Col-
laborative Research Center SFB-837, which is funded by the Ger-
man Research Foundation DFG. Additional support was provided
by Herrenknecht AG, Germany.
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