Abstract: Pressurized bentonite slurry is applied on a tunnel face to form a filter cake to stabilize the tunnel face when the slurry shield excavates through the sandy soil. Failure of the tunnel face may be caused by a high permeable filter cake, which commonly has a long penetration distance of slurry in sands. A column system with a height of 680 mm and a diameter of 300 mm was developed to model pressurized slurry infiltration in sands. Pressure transducers were installed to estimate the hydraulic conductivity of the filter cake during slurry infiltration. The electrical conductivity of the leachate of collected samples was measured. Results show that the majority of fine particles in slurry are within the range 100–300 mm into the sand specimen. The time for forming an impermeable filter cake is about 300 s, which indicates the impermeable filter cake is hard to form during the excavation.

Key words: Infiltration column, Slurry penetration, Tunneling shield, Filter cake, Hydraulic conductivity

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