Abstract: The paper presents a mechanical characterization and predicting model for the cutterhead interface load of shield machine.The interaction between the cutterhead and the soil on the excavation interface is decoupled.The geotechnical yield effect is considered to amend the stress concentration around the edge area on the interface.Then the normal and tangential stress distributions on the cutterhead are presented.In addition,a comprehensive consideration about the interface load with the contributions of the depth burial and the cutterhead topological structure is made.The present study establishes a predicting model of the thrust and the torque acting on the cutterhead interface with the influences of geological parameters,operating parameters,and structural parameters.The effectiveness of the proposed model is verified with a metro engineering instance in China.