Abstract:  The traditional shaft construction has many disadvantages, such as a low degree of mechanization, high manpower consumption, and high risk. As a result, a caisson submerged shaft boring machine is created. With high automation and efficiency, the boring machine can perform simultaneous excavation, mucking, and support operations. Some related structural research regarding the caisson submerged shaft boring machine is conducted as follows: (1) The structure and working principle of the shaft boring machine are systematically explained. (2)The mechanical and kinematic characteristics of the working device are analyzed, and a simple model of its kinematics analysis is constructed. (3) The static strength of the key components is analyzed using the finite element method, and the corresponding nephograms of stress and deformation are obtained, verifying that the key components’ strength and stiffness meet the design requirements. (4) Its key components and positions are subjected to kinematic and dynamic analyses using virtual prototype technology, yielding displacement and force curves. The results show that the structural design, the mechanical property, and the kinematics analysis of the machine are reasonable, and the finite element method and the virtual prototype techniques are feasible.

Key words:  , mechanized caisson, caisson submerged shaft boring machine, kinematics model, virtual prototype, process research