It has been found that the impact performance of water jets can be changed by its properties, which include pressure, additive, and mode of jet. Thus, an abrasive water jet (AWJ) has been developed as a new method. However, there is little research on the effect of abrasive concentration on the impact performance of abrasive jets. Thus, the SPH method is used to establish an abrasive water jet crushing concrete model to study the effect of abrasive concentration on the impact force, concrete internal energy, abrasive particle distribution, crushing depth, and damage and crushing efficiencies under different concrete compressive strengths and abrasive densities. The results indicate that there is little effect of the abrasive concentration on the peak impact force under different compressive strengths and abrasive densities, while the mean impact force tends to increase linearly with the abrasive concentration. The internal energy of the concrete increases stepwise with the abrasive concentration under different compressive strengths and abrasive densities. The concentration of 10%∼20% is the rapid increasing stage. The crushing depth and damage efficiencies are all maximum at a concentration of 20% under different compressive strengths and abrasive densities. After the concrete was impacted by the water from the water jet, it is divided into rebounding particles and intrusive particles. The more the intrusive particles, the easier the concrete to be crushed and damaged.

Because of their distinctive toroidal blade configuration, toroidal propellers can improve propulsion efficiency, reduce underwater noise, and enhance blade stability and strength. In recent years, they have emerged as an extremely promising novel underwater propulsion technology. To investigate their working mechanism, a geometric model of the toroidal propeller was initially established, and an unsteady numerical calculation model was constructed based on the sliding mesh technique. Subsequently, with the E779A conventional propeller as the research subject, the numerical model was verified, and a grid independence test was accomplished. Thereafter, the hydrodynamic performance of the toroidal propeller under diverse advance coefficients was analyzed based on the numerical model, and open water characteristic curves were established. Eventually, the surface pressure distribution, velocity field, and vorticity field of the toroidal propeller under various working conditions were studied. The outcomes demonstrate that the toroidal propeller attains the maximum propulsion efficiency at high advance coefficients, possesses a broad range of working condition adaptability, and is more applicable to high-speed vessels. At low advance coefficients, the toroidal propeller exhibits a relatively strong thrust performance, with the thrust generated by the front propeller being greater than that generated by the rear propeller, and the pressure peak emerges at the leading edge of the transition section of the front blade. The analysis of the velocity field indicates that its acceleration effect is superior to that of the conventional propeller. The analysis of the vorticity field reveals that the trailing vortices shed from the leading edge of the transition section of the front propeller merge and develop with the tip vortices, resulting in a more complex vortex structure. This research clarifies the working mechanism of the toroidal propeller through numerical simulation methods, providing an important basis for its performance optimization.

We investigated the geometric evolution of mesoscopic mechanical structures in rocks during the rock fragmentation process induced by tunnel boring machine cutters. Numerical models were built using a grain-based discrete element method to accurately represent the mesoscopic structures and macroscopic mechanical behaviours of rocks, and the relationship between the mesoscopic evolution and the macroscopic response of rock was determined. The major results are as follows. First, the crushing and re-compaction of the grains were found to mainly occur in the thin crushed zone immediately beneath the cutter tip. Second, the reduction in the bearing ability of the dense core during cutter indentation was due to the order increment of the contact topological structure at the mesoscopic scale. Third, the area percentages of low- and high-order meso-loops decreased and increased, respectively, during the indentation process, and the volume expansion of the dense core was mainly caused by an increase in the internal pore area of high-order meso-loops that have low internal solid fractions. Fourth, the low-order meso-loops primarily bore and transferred the indentation force. Finally, the distribution contour of the meso-loops was found to be an appropriate and intuitive approach for representing the evolution of cracks on a macroscopic scale.

Conical picks have a harsh working environment and 70% of their failures are caused by wear. It has been found that conical picks can rotate while interacting with the working material. This self-rotation ability is an important factor affecting pick wear, but the self-rotation mechanism remains unclear. Researching the mechanism involves the impact and friction dynamics of the interaction between a pick and its holder. Thus, a dynamic finite-element numerical model for the pick–holder interaction is established. How the handle–holder gap width, pick body and handle lengths and pick handle diameter affect the settling time and the percentage of time with no contact is studied to compare the numerical results with the equivalent effects on the rotation angle in experiments. Doing so indicates that the main factor in the self-rotation ability of a conical pick is not the magnitude of the contact load but its duration. The present research provides a new method for revealing the mechanism for the self-rotation of conical picks.

Underground engineering is becoming increasingly important in modern urban construction and mine development. However, the shape of underground roadways may deform elastically or plastically due to geological conditions and accident loads, a phenomenon that cannot be ignored. Therefore, this paper proposes a roadway deformation detection method based on laser scanning. First, the working principle of the point cloud denoising and downsampling method is explained. To overcome the limitations of this method, the paper presents a point cloud denoising approach that combines statistical and median filtering. Additionally, it introduces a voxelised grid-downsampling technique based on density constraints and the centre of gravity. Next, the bidirectional projection method is used to determine the roadway’s central axis. Then, CloudCompare point cloud processing software is used to segment the point cloud, extract the roadway section, and fit a contour curve. Finally, the methods for extracting roadway deformation from processed point cloud data and for detecting and analysing it are introduced. Experiments on roadway deformation detection are conducted on an inspection robot experimental platform to verify the feasibility of the overall scheme. Experimental results indicate that the measurement error of light detection and ranging scanning for tunnel contour is less than 2 mm.

In this study, a theoretical model was established for longitudinal braking stability (LBS) of a lightweight liquid storage mini-track vehicle to investigate its behaviors. The influence of the tank liquid filling ratio (TLR), initial velocity (IV), and initial braking deceleration (IBD) on the LBS of the tracked vehicle was studied via FLUENT simulation. The simulation results showed that when the IV and the IBD were constant, the TLR significantly affected the braking efficiency. Conversely, when the TLR was 0.7, the braking efficiency decreased by 32%, resulting in the worst LBS. The braking efficiency at different IVs decreased by ~30% when using a constant IBD and TLR, and the braking stability exhibited little difference. Further, the braking efficiency decreased noticeably with increasing IBD; meanwhile, the braking longitudinal stability worsened. When the IBD was increased to 5 m⋅s⁻², the braking efficiency decreased by 48.4%. The road experiment showed that when the tracked vehicle was accelerated and braked under limit conditions, the stability requirements were met. Finally, by combining the simulation and road experiment, the driving parameters of the tracked vehicle that could satisfy the LBS were obtained.