Abstract: The specific distance between the high-pressure water jet and mud cake lacks scientific basis presently. Therefore, the mud-cake pressing equipment and high-pressure water-jet device are designed and developed. The high-pressure waterjet cutting mud cake tests are conducted with the strongly-weathered argillaceous siltstone as test material. This experiment focuses on the influence of jet pressure, flow rate, and transmission medium on the cutting width and depth of mud cake. Main conclusions are as follows: (1) With increasing erosion distance, the mud cake cutting width increases first and then gradually decreases to 0, whereas the cutting depth gradually decreases. (2) Under the same jet pressure, the cutting width of the mud cake by the high-pressure water jet increases when the flow rate increases from 49.1 to 110.0 L/min. Nevertheless, cutting width decreases when the flow rate increases from 110.0 to 202.8 L/min. The cutting depth increases with the increasing flow rate. (3) Under the same jet flow rate, the greater the water pressure, the greater the cutting width and depth. (4) When performing mud cake cutting in water, the effect of high-pressure water jet on mud cake is mainly scouring, exhibiting a low cutting efficiency.

Key words: adhesive formation, shield tunneling, mud-cake treating, high pressure water jet, mud-cake cutting