"Tunnelling and TBM" Course at Politecnico di Torino, Italy: Summary

In this post, I intend to summarize about the 2nd Level Specializing Masters / Master of Advanced Studies (MAS) degree program on "Tunnelling and TBM", which I was following at Politecnico di Torino, Italy. Having completed the academic course work (46 out of 60 credits), I am about to begin my thesis work (based on job experience / stage / internship) to complete the remaining 14 credits.

MAS program on "Tunnelling and Tunnel Boring machines" at Politecnico di Torino, Italy is one of the four courses offered worldwide on Tunnelling which is endorsed by International Tunnelling Association (ITA/AITES) and ITACET committee. Three of them (including this) are MAS level / 2nd Master's level  course and one of them is MSc level course (details).

The program at Politecnico di Torino combines university lectures with expert lectures from construction companies, machines producers, design companies and industry professionals to provide the multidisciplinary knowledge. The program has been running for around 18 years, offered once in two years, and has now reached its 9th edition (more details).

In clockwise from top-left corner. Herrenknecht site visit, Prof. Kovari's lecture, Prof. Galler's Lecture, ITACET Board with program participants.

Course Structure

The course contained the following modules. Lectures for each of the modules were delivered by industrial experts along with the university professors.

• Contractual and legislative aspects, work sites management, quality 
• General aspects of mechanized tunneling and Hard Rock TBMs
• Plants and microtunneling
• Rock Mass Characterization, Geo investigations and risk assessment
• Safety and environmental issues of work sites
• Soil mechanized tunneling
• Tunnel design and construction method
• Tunnel supports

All my posts related to the course can be accessed here.

Details about the course content are summarized in the following info-graphics.

Time distribution in the program

Distribution of guest lectures

Background of lecturers during the program

Time allotted for different modules

I would like to thank ITACET Foundation for their financial support to follow this program and their constant encouragement during the course work.

My thanks are due to Prof. Peila, Director of the Master Course for his tireless effort and his constant willingness to receive feedback from the participants of the program for continuos improvement of the course.

Sponsors of this edition of Tunnelling and TBM Program

Sponsors of previous editions of Tunnelling and TBM Program

Herrenknecht Visit - Schwanau, Germany

Towards the end of our MAS degree program on Tunnelling and TBM at Politecnico di Torino, we had an opportunity to visit the Herrenknecht's main manufacturing facility in Schwanau, Germany. Politecnico di Torino (Prof. Daniele Peila) along with the Herrenknecht's engineers organised this visit for the participants of the MAS program.

Herrenknecht EPB TBM for Doha Metro - Assembled at Schwanau, Germany

I have been working as a Geotechnical engineer from the year 2009 and during this period of 5 years, I was lucky enough to visit and get involved in some very interesting construction sites (ranging from mining sites, underground metro, harbour facilities, skyscrapers, power plants, railways etc) but I was never as much excited as I was during the visit to the Herrenknecht's headquarters. Although this is technically not a construction site, the Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs), manufactured here, plays a pivotal role in the success of any Tunnelling construction site and the amount of "Civil engineering concepts" goes into making of this "Mechanical machine" is immense. It was not just me, most of the course participants felt the same way. It was the Disney Land of the Tunnel/Geotech engineer or of that sort, one can not get upset here.

We had an opportunity to visit EPB TBM, Mix-Shield (Slurry) TBM, EPB-Hard Rock Convertible TBM and Hard Rock Gripper TBM in the bigger diameters suite. In addition to the assembled TBMs, we witnessed and learned, among others, the following important aspects:

• The process of assembly of main bearing
• Segment erection process
• Mechanism of foam delivery for soil conditioning
• Working of screw conveyor
• Slurry separation unit

On the Microtunnelling front, we saw completely assembled and spare parts of Pipe jacking Micro TBMs (EPB and Slurry), Pipe thrusters and HDD rig. This visit, coming just after Prof. Sterling's lecture on Microtunnelling gave us a comprehensive understanding on the mechanism of Microtunnels and working phenomenon.

Herrenknecht - Main facility entrance