Abstract: Aiming at the problems of surface settlement due to metro construction in water-rich silty sand layer by shield machine, and based on the theoretical analysis of surface subsidence, the shield tunneling section in water-rich fine sand layer on Taiyuan metro Line 2 is taken as the research object, the influences of different aperture rate of the cutterhead on the ground surface subsidence are simulated. The research shows that the cutter-head with large aperture rate adopted in earth pressure balanced (EPB) shield machine is more suitable for driving in the water-rich silty fine sand layer. When the EPB shield machine select the 50% aperture rate cutter-head in the construction, the ground surface settlement could be successfully controlled within 2 cm, and the empirical formula obtained could be used to calculate the ground surface settlement of shield tunneling in water-rich silty fine sand layer. According to the measured excavation volume of shield tunneling, the cutterhead with 51% aperture rate is proved to be more suitable for shield tunneling in the water-rich silty fine sand layer of Taiyuan City.