Productivity Study of Microtunneling Pipe Installation Using Simulation

Microtunneling is a complex operation that requires the integration of several systems, a variety of supporting equipments and personnel, and is heavily influenced by subsurface condition. The objective of this research is to analyze and evaluate the factors that affect the productivity in microtunneling operations. Computer simulation can be used to study microtunneling operations before they are actually performed, thereby identifying operational inefficiency at different stages of the project and finding soil impact on the productivity. For this research, an actual microtunneling field study conducted at Louisiana Tech University was selected. Based on the data collected during this field study, a cyclic operations network model was developed with consideration on the impact of variations in soil compositions on the productivity of the operation. Simulations were repetitively conducted with different soil compositions. The simulation results were studied with regression analysis. A linear function of productivity and soil compositions was found. Various combinations of resources were also simulated. In this research study, the hypothesis that microtunneling boring machine is the bottleneck of the operation was proved to be true, whereas labor resources were found to be secondary limitations.