Abstract: With the maturity of the shield machine construction technology, the shield machine plays a critical role in the water conservancy tunnel projects.However, series of problems such as severe cutter wear, intensified cutter consumption and low excavation efficiency are prone to occur during the construction of shield tunneling machines under complex geological conditions.To clarify the change rule of rock breaking performance under different rock properties, improve the rock breaking efficiency and service life of inserted tooth disc cutter, and to ensure the safe and efficient construction of water conservancy tunnel projects, based on a nonlinear finite element dynamics software, we carried out a simulation on rock breaking performance under different rock characteristics for inserted tooth disc cutter of flat tooth and ball tooth respectively.The optimal combinations of two types of tooth disc cutters and penetration under different rock properties were investigated through several sets of simulations, and the simulation results were verified by indoor rock-breaking tests.The results indicated that under the geological conditions of tuff, there was less difference between breaking load of flat tooth and ball tooth of inserted disc cutter, but the breaking efficiency of ball tooth inserted disc cutter was higher.Under the geological conditions of sandstone and granite, the ability of flat tooth disc cutter to penetrate into the rock was stronger, and the efficiency of rock breaking could be further improved.In addition, under different rock characteristics, the specific energy consumption of the two types of tooth disc cutters showed a trend of decreasing and then increasing with deepening of penetration, and the minimum value occurred around the penetration degree of 6 mm.The results of this study can provide a reference for the selection of shield machine cutters for tunneling projects, and promote the development and application of tooth disc cutters.