Experimental study on the stratum applicability and mechanisms of bubble-slurry for earth pressure balance shields

Soil conditioning is essential for addressing the stratum applicability problem of earth pressure balance (EPB) shields. Under high water pressures, EPB shields spew water and soil when excavating coarse-grained strata. Typically, foam combined with polymers and slurry is used to solve spewing. However, in current techniques, slurry, foam, and the other agents are mixed with soil separately, their synergistic effect is seldom realized. In this study, an anionic surfactant was used to foam in bentonite slurry to form bubble-slurry to maximize the synergy between bubbles and slurry. The slump, volume stability, and permeability test of bubble-slurry-conditioned sand was conducted to examine the conditioning effect, and the stratum applicability of bubble-slurry was determined from the perspective of permeability. It was found that the conditioning effect of bubble-slurry in coarse gravel soil was excellent and could expand the applicability of EPB shields. The main stabilization mechanism of bubble-slurry is that bentonite particles provide a space barrier for bubbles. And three seepage modes of bubble-slurry-conditioned sand were innovatively defined, and the occurrence conditions of the three seepage modes were analyzed according to the permeability coefficient of sand, initial dynamic shear force of bubble-slurry, and hydraulic gradient.