Downloaded 575 times
Uploaded byMartin Preene
Groundwater Control for Construction
This document provides an overview of groundwater control for construction. It defines groundwater control as temporarily dealing with groundwater to allow excavations below the water table. The main approaches to groundwater control are exclusion, using physical barriers like cut-off walls, and pumping using well arrays. Good design requires understanding site conditions through investigation to develop an appropriate conceptual model and select analysis methods. Both empirical and analytical approaches are used, with numerical modeling for more complex sites. Observational methods also allow adapting designs based on monitoring.
More Related Content
Similar to Groundwater Control for Construction
Groundwater Control for Construction
- 1. GROUNDWATER CONTROL FOR www.preene.com CONSTRUCTION Dr Martin Preene Preene Groundwater Consulting June 2014
- 2. www.preene.com GROUNDWATER CONTROL Definition Groundwater Control “The process of temporarily dealing with groundwater, to allow excavations to be made in dry and stable conditions below natural groundwater level” May be known as Dewatering or Construction Dewatering or Groundwater Lowering Additional definition: Permeability = coefficient of permeability = hydraulic conductivity (expressed in m/s)
- 3. www.preene.com GROUNDWATER CONTROL Synopsis • Definitions • Approaches to groundwater control: – by exclusion – by pumping • Approaches to design • A bit of history and dewatering philosophy
- 4. www.preene.com PRACTICE PROFILE Preene Groundwater Consulting is the Professional Practice of Dr Martin Preene and provides specialist advice and design services in the fields of dewatering, groundwater engineering and hydrogeology to clients worldwide Dr Martin Preene has more than 25 years’ experience on projects worldwide in the investigation, design, installation and operation of groundwater control and dewatering systems. He is widely published on dewatering and groundwater control and is the author of the UK industry guidance on dewatering (CIRIA Report C515 Groundwater Control Design and Practice) as well as a dewatering text book (Groundwater Lowering in Construction: A Practical Guide to Dewatering)
- 5. HOW DO WEGET GOOD DESIGN? www.preene.com Data Information Knowledge Wisdom
- 6. HOW DO WEGET GOOD DESIGN? www.preene.com Data Information Knowledge Wisdom Theory Projects Screw ups Good dewatering design
- 7.
- 8. www.preene.com GROUNDWATER CONTROL Two main philosophies of groundwater control • Exclusion: Physical cut-off walls • Pumping: Arrays of wells or sumps (construction dewatering)
- 9. EXCLUSION: VERTICAL CUT-OFFWALLS www.preene.com Cut-off walls penetrate into underlying low permeability stratum
- 10. EXCLUSION: CUT-OFF WALLSAND PUMPED WELLS www.preene.com Cut-off walls do not reach deep impermeable stratum: dewatering wells are needed
- 11. EXCLUSION: VERTICAL CUT-OFFAND HORIZONTAL BARRIERS www.preene.com Cut-off walls do not reach deep impermeable stratum: horizontal barrier is used to exclude groundwater from base
- 12. www.preene.com EXCLUSION TECHNIQUES • Displacement barriers – Steel sheet-piles • Excavated barriers – Concrete diaphragm walls – Bored pile walls (secant pile walls and contiguous pile walls) – Bentonite slurry walls and trenches • Injected barriers – Permeation grouting – Rock grouting – Jet grouting – Mix-in-place methods • Artificial ground freezing • Compressed air (for tunnels and shafts)
- 13. www.preene.com STEEL SHEET-PILING Circular sheet-pile cofferdam with concrete walings
- 14. CONCRETE DIAPHRAGM WALLS www.preene.com Circular concrete diaphragm wall
- 15. CONCRETE DIAPHRAGM WALLS www.preene.com Rope operated diaphragm wall grab Construction sequence for diaphragm walls from Woodward (2005): An Introduction to Geotechnical Processes Source: Bachy Soletanche Rockmill diaphragm wall cutter Source: Cementation Skanska
- 16. www.preene.com BORED PILEWALLS Secant pile wall exposed showing unreinforced female piles and reinforced male piles (Source: Bachy Soletanche)
- 17. www.preene.com BENTONITE SLURRYWALLS Bentonite slurry wall constructed by long reach excavator Source: Arup
- 18. www.preene.com BENTONITE SLURRYWALLS Bentonite-cement slurry wall constructed by long reach excavator Common European practice Soil-bentonite slurry wall constructed by long reach excavator Common North American practice
- 19. www.preene.com PERMEATION GROUTING • Cement-based grouts in coarse soils and fissured rocks • Micro-fine cement grouts and chemical grouts (gels) in lower permeability soils
- 20.
- 21. ARTIFICIAL GROUND FREEZING www.preene.com
- 22. ARTIFICIAL GROUND FREEZING Artificial ground freezing system around a shaft Source: British Drilling and Freezing Co. Ltd www.preene.com
- 23. ARTIFICIAL GROUND FREEZING(BRINE) www.preene.com AGF using brine circulation Brine freeze plant Source: British Drilling and Freezing Co. Ltd
- 24. ARTIFICIAL GROUND FREEZING(LN) Schematic diagram of liquid nitrogen (LN) freezing system www.preene.com
- 25. GROUNDWATER CONTROL BYPUMPING www.preene.com
- 26. www.preene.com SURFACE WATERCONTROL Groundwater control alone cannot keep an excavation dry. Surface water must also be controlled Poor control of surface water
- 27. www.preene.com SURFACE WATERCONTROL Groundwater control alone cannot keep an excavation dry. Surface water must also be controlled Poor control of surface water Adequate control of surface water
- 28. SURFACE WATER CONTROLMETHODS www.preene.com • Source control - intercept run-off before it reaches the excavation - prevent unnecessary generation of water in the excavation - collect water as soon as it reaches the work area (or before!) • Water collection - French drains to intercept run off - collector drains and sumps - pumping systems (keep it simple!) • Water treatment - solids removal (settlement tanks, Siltbusters)
- 29. GROUNDWATER CONTROL BYPUMPING www.preene.com Available Techniques • Sump pumping • Wellpoints • Deepwells • Ejector wells
- 30. www.preene.com SUMPING APPLICATIONS Drainage trench used to feed water to sump formed from concrete manhole ring Source: WJ Groundwater
- 31. www.preene.com WELLPOINTS Excavationin sand using wellpoint dewatering Source: WJ Groundwater
- 32. www.preene.com DEEPWELLS FromCIRIA Report C515 (2000): Groundwater Control: Design and Practice
- 33. www.preene.com EJECTOR WELLS From CIRIA Report C515 (2000): Groundwater Control: Design and Practice
- 34. RANGE OF APPLICATIONOF METHODS www.preene.com Amount of lowering of groundwater level Low permeability (silts) High permeability (gravels) From CIRIA Report C515 (2000): Groundwater Control: Design and Practice
- 35. WHAT IS DEWATERINGDESIGN? www.preene.com Dewatering design is NOT about: • Developing excessively complex models and concepts • Trying to ‘simulate’ reality The objective of design should be to: • Allow engineering and commercial decisions to be made • Focus on appropriate level of detail relevant to key issues for your problem (e.g. technology selection, flow rate estimate, environmental impacts)
- 36. UNDERSTANDING THE PROBLEM www.preene.com • Site investigation (field and desk studies) • Why is groundwater control required – what are the objectives? • What are the aquifer conditions? • What is the likely range of permeability? • What are the practical and environmental constraints?
- 37. DEFINING PERFORMANCE TARGETS • Are we trying to reduce groundwater levels or to reduce www.preene.com pore water pressures? • What are the target groundwater levels or pressures, and where (plan location and stratum) do we need to achieve these effects? • Required timescale? • Need for standby/back up systems? • Any specified environmental mitigation? • Flow rate is NOT normally a performance target
- 38. www.preene.com SELECTING TECHNOLOGIES Technologies may not be interchangeable Amount of lowering of groundwater level Low permeability (silts) High permeability (gravels) From CIRIA Report C515 (2000): Groundwater Control: Design and Practice
- 39. www.preene.com ESTIMATING FLOWRATE • The pumped flow rate from a dewatering system is often the key parameter to be estimated • It will influence the capacity of the dewatering system • It may control selection of the technology
- 40.
- 41. www.preene.com APPROACHES TODESIGN • Empirical • Analytical • Numerical • Observational
- 42. www.preene.com EMPIRICAL METHODS • A great many dewatering systems are not ‘designed’ in the formal sense • They are selected based on established ‘rules of thumb’ • A key issue is that site conditions must appropriate to the assumptions behind the rule of thumb • Problems occur if the rules of thumb are applied (knowingly or unknowingly) in inappropriate conditions
- 43. www.preene.com ANALYTICAL METHODS • Use of ‘textbook’ equations on paper or by spreadsheet • A wide variety of analytical equations are available. It is important that the appropriate one(s) are selected for site conditions • Need to have a conceptual model FIRST in order to be able to select the appropriate analytical method • Use of inappropriate analytical equations will give gross errors
- 44. www.preene.com NUMERICAL METHODS • Use of numerical models (e.g. finite difference and finite element models) • Two-dimensional or three-dimensional models • Steady state or transient models can be constructed • Proprietary software packages are used (MODFLOW, FEFLOW, SEEP/W, etc) • Need a conceptual model first • Used when there is very good (or sometimes very bad!) data
- 45. OBSERVATIONAL METHODS •An application of the established geotechnical Observational Method which is sometimes called ‘design as you go’ • Is a formalised, step by step approach • Develop a conceptual model and make design predictions (by analytical or numerical methods) • Have defined monitoring programme with ‘trigger levels’ • If trigger levels are reached, defined additional dewatering measures are put into place www.preene.com
- 46. www.preene.com KEY FACTORSIN DESIGN • Good design is all about getting the right conceptual model at an early stage • This will allow better selection of appropriate design methods • And allow the selection of appropriate methods and technologies
- 47. A BIT OFHISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY • Some of the basic theory used in dewatering design pre-dates the birth of soil mechanics theory – Darcy’s law (1856) – dynamics of laminar groundwater flow – Dupuit equations (1863) – well equations – Hazen’s rule (1892) – hydraulic conductivity of uniform sands • An understanding of the theory of groundwater flow is essential, www.preene.com but is not enough • Getting the conceptual model right is fundamental • An understanding of the capability and limitations of pumping and exclusion technologies is also required – you have to get the technology right • A little bit of local experience goes a long way
- 48. A BIT OFHISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY • In general dewatering design is not ‘codified’ • There are few prescriptive design and practice rules to be followed • Eurocode 7 (BS EN 1997-1: 2004) includes a short (1 page) section on dewatering, but this is not prescriptive, and only gives generic guidance on good practice. • I am not aware of any English language prescriptive dewatering www.preene.com design codes (those that exist are generic) • One of the main existing design documents is CIRIA Report C515 Groundwater Control: Design and Practice (2000). The original document was written in 1997 and is currently being updated by CIRIA for 2014
- 49. www.preene.com AND FINALLY…. Hugh Golder on dewatering “The limitations of the different systems which are available are practical rather than theoretical and the design of a system is no task for an optimist. A sound engineer with a melancholy outlook, whose life has been a series of unhappy trials, is the best man to plan a water-lowering system.” H. Q. Golder and J. L. Seychuk “Soil Problems in Subway Construction” 3rd Pan-American Conference on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Caracas, Venezuela, July 1967, pp. 203-240.
- 50. GROUNDWATER CONTROL FOR www.preene.com CONSTRUCTION Dr Martin Preene Preene Groundwater Consulting June 2014