Development of a mechanical rock breakage experimental platform

•A new mechanical rock breakage experimental platform is developed for mechanical rock cutting test.•Different type of cutter/cutting and the high in situ stress are all considered by the new experimental platform.•The new experimental platform can consider the different rock mass structure for the rock cutting test. With social and economic development and improvement of science and technology, tunnel boring machines, raise boring machines, reaming machines and road headers have been unprecedentedly applied to underground engineering construction. Mechanical rock breakage experiments became an indispensable mean for mechanical excavation of underground engineering. It can also guide the design and operation of excavation machines. This paper introduces the new mechanical rock breakage experimental platform developed by Beijing University of Technology. The design and manufacture of this platform considered the influence of high in situ stress, cutter head rotation and rock breakage by multi-cutters at the same time on the rock breakage process. Different tools, such as rolling cutters, scraper, ripper, and pick, for different excavation machines can be tested in the platform. It can also take into account the different rock mass structure in the sample box. Different construction conditions with different cutting tools can be realistically modeled. The experimental platform consists of a mechanical system, a hydraulic system, an automatic control system and a data acquisition system. After installation of the designed experimental platform, several tests with different construction conditions were conducted. The experimental results showed that the platform reached its design requirements.