Effect of water saturation on cutting performance of roadheaders in excavation of pyroclastic rocks

Roadheaders excavate pyroclastic rocks in the Cappadocia region within the scope of underground cold storage, hotel, and restaurant projects due to their easy-to-excavate and low-strength structures. The water content of excavated pyroclastic rocks may vary depending on groundwater income and climatic reasons, and these changes negatively affect the excavation performance of roadheaders. In this study, the excavation performance parameters of roadheaders were recorded for excavations in dry and aqueous environments at 9 different sites in the Cappadocia region, where underground cold storage was excavated. The strength values of the samples taken from the excavation sites were determined. Excavation performances of roadheaders were calculated theoretically for dry and saturated conditions excavations. According to the results, while roadheader excavation performances in aqueous environment excavations were expected to increase for all project field data showed that roadheader performances decreased in aqueous environment excavations. The results of this study have shown that theoretically calculated performance values cannot give accurate results during the excavation of low-strength and clay-containing rocks, such as pyroclastic rocks in the Cappadocia region, in an aqueous environment.