China’s home-built tunnelling machine “Linghang”, described as the world’s largest-diameter shield machine for high-speed rail, has reportedly driven more than 10km.
With roughly 1km left to reach the Yangtze River’s southern bank, the project has become the first worldwide in which a 15-metre-diameter shield machine has completed a single uninterrupted drive of 10km, China Media Group (CMG) reported.
The tunnel is designed to carry high-speed trains travelling at 350km per hour beneath the river.
Once operational, the tunnel is expected to cut travel times between key cities along the Yangtze, including Shanghai, Nanjing and Hefei, and to support the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt.
“The machine incorporates an advanced tunnelling system, which enables autonomous operation through intelligent analysis and decision-making,” said deputy equipment manager of the project Wang Yi was quoted as saying.
“Drawing from hundreds of historical datasets and machine-learning models, the system’s capabilities enable efficient manned supervision along with unmanned operation,” he said.
Science and Technology Daily reported that the machine is fitted with what is described as the world’s most advanced “brain” system, featuring adaptive pressure control in the shield chamber, cloud-based predictive data for independent decision-making and autonomous control of tunnelling posture.
These functions are said to provide more stable tunnelling, slurry circulation and posture than conventional manual operation.
The same report said the system has enabled fully algorithm-based, unmanned intelligent tunnelling to be used routinely, and that the project has set a world record with a monthly advance of 718m in a 15-metre-class high-speed rail tunnel.
