Prediction of the Penetration Rate and Number of Consumed Disc Cutters of Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs) Using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM)—Case Study: Beheshtabad Water Conveyance Tunnel in Iran

Abstract

Tunnel boring machines (TBMs) are designed to excavate underground spaces and widely used in tunneling, civil and mining projects. TBM performance prediction substantially deals with the evaluation of machine’s penetration rate and the number of consumed disc cutters. There are various methods and equations to predict the TBMs performance in the literature. In this paper, we predicted the penetration rate and number of consumed disc cutters in Beheshtabad water conveyance tunneling project, one of the major water conveyance tunneling projects in Iran, using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) methods. Results showed that both approaches are very effective but SVM yields more precise and realistic findings than ANN.