During shield tunneling through cohesive ground, mud-cake formation on the cutterhead readily occurs, leading to excavation hindrance and severely constraining tunneling efficiency. To address the instability of anti-adhesion measures in field applications, this study proposes an electro-osmosis-chemical modification synergistic approach to reduce clay adhesiveness. It further investigates the effects of key control parameters on de-adhesion performance and energy consumption, and evaluates its engineering-scale applicability and optimal parameter ranges. Inclined-plane tests and pore-water migration experiments are conducted under varying voltages, mud-cake thicknesses, and modifier dosages. An equivalent-scale numerical model (cross-sectional diameter of 6.88 m and thickness of 1.5 m) is developed to simulate and analyze the electrochemical synergistic de-adhesion process. The results indicate the following: (1) De-adhesion performance increases with increasing voltage but decreases with increasing mud-cake thickness at a given voltage. (2) Under laboratory conditions, a favorable balance between de-adhesion performance and energy consumption is achieved when the mud-cake thickness is 20 mm, the modifier dosage is 3%, and the applied voltage is 5 V. (3) Numerical simulations show that under low-voltage conditions, the de-adhesion rate is slow, and the overall effectiveness is limited. As the voltage increases, both the de-adhesion rate and the affected zone increase markedly, whereas the incremental gains gradually diminish in the highvoltage regime. (4) Incorporating the soilconditioning agent markedly expands the effective influence zone of electro-osmotic de-adhesion. Under the equivalent-scale numerical model, the overall electrochemical synergistic de-adhesion performance is optimal at 20 V with a 3% modifier dosage. In summary, the electrochemical synergistic de-adhesion approach effectively enhances the anti-adhesion performance at the cutterhead-clay interface. For engineering applications, the voltage and modifier formulation should be optimized by jointly considering energy consumption, ground conditions, and equipment constraints to optimize the de-adhesion performance and tunneling efficiency.
HAO Sihaowensong
,
LI Shuchen
,
LI Xuewei
,
LIU Richeng
,
YIN Weifang
,
XU Kechun
. Experimental Simulation of Electrochemical Synergistic De-adhesion for Mitigating Shield Cutterhead Clogging in Clayey Strata[J]. Tunnel Construction, 2026
, 46(3)
: 586
-598
.
DOI: 10.3973/j.issn.2096-4498.2026.03.012