Abstract: The fast connectors between rings of shield tunnel segments has poor tolerance performance and limited tensile strength. The address these issues, a fast connector between rings with automatic error adaptation and high tensile strength is designed and developed. The main mechanical properties such as tensile capacity, tensile stiffness, and structural damage morphology of the connectors are obtained by conducting tensile performance tests and numerical simulation analysis of the connectors, validating the perfect tensile performance of the connectors with self-adaptive error function. This provides a research foundation for the promotion and application of fast connectors. The results reveal the following: (1) The maximum insertion force of the female connector is 66.02 kN, the tensile bearing capacity is 521.49 kN, the overall longitudinal tensile stiffness is 1.72×10⁷ N/m, and the tensile bearing capacity and the longitudinal tensile stiffness of the male connector structure are 508.77 kN and 1.81×10⁷ N/m, respectively. (2) The damage of the connector during tensile test basically occurs at the anchoring structure, and no obvious deformation damage occurs in the main stressed structure.(3) Numerical simulation results demonstrate the form of tensile damage in the main stressed structure of the connectors. The connecting rod shows a large area of stress yielding; the internal structural stress in the connectors does not reach the yield strength, and no partial yielding occurs, which shows that the connecting rod is a weak part of the connectors. (4) The tensile simulation results of male connectors under different sliding offsets reveals the integrity of the overall tensile performance of the connectors under self-adaptive error conditions.

Key words: shield tunnel, self-adaptive fast connectors between rings, tensile load capacity, tensile stiffness