The underwater concreting techniques designed mostly to prevent cement washout. These methods did not obtain the full purpose of avoiding cement wash out at early stages of using under water concreting apart from cases where large masses of concreting were employed.

1. UNDERWATER CONCRETING
SHIVANANDA ROY
B.TECH, M.TECH, AMIE

2. UNDERWATER CONCRETING
• The underwater concreting techniques designed mostly to prevent
cement washout. These methods did not obtain the full purpose of
avoiding cement wash out at early stages of using under water
concreting apart from cases where large masses of concreting were
employed.
• However, more recent techniques could obtain the objective of
preventing washing out of concrete. In this article, various methods
will be explored.
Following are the methods of underwater concreting:
1. Tremie method
2. Pumping technique
3. Hydro valve method
4. Pneumatic valve method
5. Skip method
6. Tilting pallet barge method
7. Preplaced aggregate concrete
8. Toggle bags method
9. Bagged concrete method

3. Tremie Method of Underwater Concreting
• Underwater concreting using tremie
method is convenient for pouring large
amount of high flowable concrete. The
concrete is moved to the hopper by
either pumping, belt conveyer or skips.
• Tremie pipe, which upper end connected
to a hopper and lower end continuously
submerged in fresh concrete, is used to
place concrete at the exact location from
a hopper at the surface. The reason to
immerse the tremie pipe lower end is to
prevent intermixing of both concrete and
water.

4. Process of Underwater Concreting using Tremie
Method
• Tremie Equipment
 The tremie pipe might be configured in three different
ways such as constant length that is raised during
concreting, pipe with different sections which dismantled
during concreting and telescope pipe.
 The usual diameter is between 200- 300 mm but
aggregate size should be considered.
• Tremie seal
 To avoid intermixing water and concrete in the pipe, a
wooden plug of plat is used to seal the end of the pipe.
This prevents entering water in to the pipe and keeps it
dry.
 After the pipe reach the intended position the concrete is
poured and break the seal. Then concrete flow out of the
pipe and creating a seal by accumulating around the
lower end of the pipe
• Placing the concrete
 As soon as concreting began the pipe mouth should
be submerged up to 1- 1.5 m into fresh concrete to
prevent water entering the pipe.
 The concrete flow rate is controlled by lowering and
raising the pipe and either decrease or increase in
concrete discharge indicates the loss of the seal.
• Flow pattern
 Two types of flow pattern are recognized namely,
layered and bulging.
 The bulging flow is desired because it displaced the
concrete uniformly which leads to lesser laitance
deformation and flatter slopes.

5. Underwater Concreting using Pumping Technique
• Underwater concreting using pumping
technique is a developed version of Tremie
pipe and it is quicker method for concreting
in areas that is difficult to access such as
under piers.
• Pumping provide several advantages that
Tremie pipe is lacking for example, pouring
concrete from mixer to formworks directly,
solve blockages in the pipe because
concreting is through pumping instead of
using gravitational force, and risk of
segregation is decreased.

6. Hydro Valve Method of Underwater
Concreting
• A flexible hose which hydrostatically
compressed is employed to pour concrete.
• As soon as concrete placed in the upper of
the pipe, both friction inside the pipe and
hydrostatic pressure is overcame by concrete
weight.
• This leads to move concrete slowly in the
pipe and avoid segregation. A rigid tubular
section is used to seal the end of the hose.
This method is not costly and quite simple.

7. Underwater Concreting using Pneumatic
Valves
• Pneumatic valves are joined to the end of the pipe
line of concrete. There are different types of valves
which are employed for underwater concreting
such as Abetong-Sabema and Shimizu. These two
valves are alike apart from a sensor that attached
to the latter; its function is to close the valve when
concrete reach determined thickness.
• Another type of valve is available which can be
used to pour concrete at a depth of 52m without
immersing end of the pipe. The function of the
valves is to permit, restrict, stop the discharge of
concrete and this method is the useful technique.

8. Underwater Concreting using the Skips
Method
• The equipment that is used for conveying
concrete is a bucket with double door
opening at the bottom and overlapping
canvas flaps which is fitted at the top to
prevent concrete washing.
• The skip is lowered down through water
slowly as soon as it filled with concrete and
when it reaches the location the doors are
opened either automatically or manually.
• The Skip technique of underwater
concreting is suitable for cases where a
large mass of concrete is required for
stabilizing foundations and small amount of
concrete is needed for different locations.
Shows opened and closed skips.

9. Underwater Concreting using Tilting Pallet
Barge
• This technique is useful for shallow
water and the concrete is poured in
thin layers. Along the deck of the
barge a tilting pallet is constructed
upon which concrete is spread
uniformly and then fell into the
water freely.

10. Underwater Concreting using Preplaced
Aggregate Concrete
• Preplaced aggregate concrete method is quite good
for cases where pouring ordinary concrete is difficult
or improbable. It includes placing aggregate in the
forms then injecting concrete into the bottom and
filled the forms to the top.
• To prevent trapping water and air, concreting is
beginning from the bottom. That is why it is necessary
to position the tubes in the forms before placing the
aggregate.
• Concrete strength about 70 to 100% of conventional
concrete can be obtained in this technique. The pipes
are distributed with the maximum distance of 1.5 m
and their diameters ranges from 19 – 35 mm.

11. Toggle Bags Method
• Toggle Bags method is useful when
small amount of concrete is required.
A reusable canvas bag is sealed at the
top with chain and secured with
toggles is filled with concrete and
dropped carefully into the determined
location then through opening at the
bottom of the bag the concrete is
discharged.

12. Bagged Concrete Method
• Bagged concrete method used for
renew ballast or to seal holes
temporarily. The bags are produced
from considerably strong fabric with
capacity of 10 -20 liters and it carried by
divers to the selected position.
• The concrete slump is between 19- 50
mm and 40 mm is the maximum
aggregate size that can be used. The
installation of the bags is similar to
bricks in order to create bonds.