Cost-effective seepage control and ground improvement in rock tunnelling with preinjections.

Alan Pengelly Regional Manager, UGC Asia Pacific 20th September 2008
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Contents

What is pre-injection? Why Pre-inject? Grout material types Penetrability concept Practical Aspects Maneri Bhali Case Study Arrow Head Case Study

What is pre-injection?

Why Pre-injection?

Pre-injection A proactive mindset!

In front of the tunnel face
Tunnel

1. Safety to reduce risk of tunnel collapse 2. Environment drainage and contamination of water table 3. Cost cheaper to deal with above problems with low cost materials cements than with expensive chemicals

Safety - Water inrush

They have serious water problems in the TBM tunnel.

Take a look at the pictures, and you will understand why

Environmental Impact

Functional requirements for injection works

Tunnel drainage effect
Very small water ingress to the tunnel => several meter pressure drop in the sand => pore pressure loss and settlement in the clay

Injection Material Types

Pre - injection Materials

Cement-based grouts
Ordinary portland cement (OPC) Microcement systems

Mineral Grouts and Gels

Colloidal silica waterglass

Post - injection Materials

Polyurethanes (PU)
One-component systems reacting with water Two-component systems with tailored properties

Acrylates
Sophisticated two-component systems Low viscosity High reactivity Taylored properties
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Colloidal Silica Technology

Colloidal silica gel is a mineral grout, and is not a chemical grout It is a stable liquid containing single, submicroscopic particles of silica oxide To make it gel, a weak solution of salt water is mixed prior to pumping. The more salt water added, the faster the gel time It is environmentally friendly and durable, as it is simply composed of quartz sand, water and salt! Having the consistency of water, it penetrates sands and fine fissures very easily It is extremely user-friendly as standard cement grout equipment can be used and cleaned with water

Colloidal Silica Technology

5 to 15 m

Silica gel (hard aggregates)

5 m

Precipitated silica (grape clusters)

0.2 m
Silica fume (chain-like)

0.015m
Colloidal silica (primary particles)

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Penetrability Concept
not related to w/c ratio !

< 5% bleed in 2hours

Marsh cone time < 35 s

D95 <20microns

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Size matters! Grain size

Silica fume 0.2m

0.02mm

Rheocem 900
9m

Rheocem 650
15m

OPC
50m

MP320
0.015m

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Rock injection

Colloidal silica MEYCO MP320 Ultrafine - Rheocem 900 Ultrafine - Rheocem 800 Microfine - Rheocem 650 Normal fine cement
0.001 0.01 0.1 1 10 100

Injection into cracks = 3 x cement particle size

Urban tunneling require injection down towards 0,02 mm cracks

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Grain size - penetration test Rheocem

Grout pumped from this side

9 xitube e l p g n 0cm lo

Penetrability Concept
not related to w/c ratio !

< 5% bleed in 2hours

Marsh cone time < 35 s

D95 <20m

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Stability - Bleed

Rheocem Fine cement 650

Rheocem 650

Fine cement

bleed

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Penetrability Concept
not related to w/c ratio !

SETTING TIME < 5% bleed in 2hours Marsh cone time < 35 s D95 <20m

Setting time is a very important parameter to minimize the excavation cycle < 2 hours is ideal

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Viscosity - Marsh cone time

Water:

30 seconds

Rheocem 900 w/c = 1.0 Rheobuild 2000 PF, 2%

Runs through in 33 sec.

Practical Aspects

Pro-active mindset:
pre-injection is an investment to avoid serious difficulties with water ingress and instable ground A systematic process that gives an opportunity to deal with ground instability before we tunnel into it.

Drilling of probe holes in front of the tunnel face utlizing normal tunnelling equipment, injection when required ahead of the face Utilization of relatively inexpensive injection materials, mainly based on OPC and microcement Injection with high pressure (> 50 bar)

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Practical Aspects: low cost, less delays, avoid the unexpected

Typical length: 15 to 30 m Typical spacing: 1 to 2 m

Pre-injection is far more economical than post injection! (10 to 50 times less expensive to stop water ingress)
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Practical Aspects: Simple equipment.

+ Water (w/c 1.0) + 1.5% Rheobuild 2000PF

MIXER

PUMP

Packer

AGITATOR TANK

Use mix within 40 minutes!

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Simple Packer Systems

STEP 1: THE PACKER IS ATTACHED TO THE INJECTION LANCE AND PUSHED INTO THE HOLE

STEP 2: THE PACKER IS EXPANDED IN THE DRILLHOLE USING THE TIGHTENING LEVER. THE INJECTION CAN START.

STEP 3: WHEN THE INJECTION OF THE HOLE IS FINISHED, THE VALVE CLOSES ITSELF. THE INJECTION LANCE IS DISCONNECTED BY SCREWING BACK THE TIGHTENING LEVER, WHILE THE RUBBER SLEEVE ON THE PACKER REMAINS EXPANDED.

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Indian Pre-Injection Case History Maneri Bhali 7m dia head race tunnel
Hydro Electric Project. Power House : 304 MW Project HRT : 16 Km x 6 mtr Horse shoe Owner : Uttaranchal Jal Vidyut Nigam Limited. (UJVNL) Consultant : Irrigation Department, Govt. of Uttaranchal. Contractor/s : M/s Hydel Constructions Pvt. Ltd. Sub-contractor : M/s Shring Constructions Pvt. Ltd Project started initially in 1978, stopped in 1991 because of a) collapse in the tunnel b) lack of funds. Restarted in 2002.

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The Clients Problem

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Conditions in original 20 year old tunnel

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Solution.

Construct a 150m by-pass tunnel to reconstruct the tunnel to correct profile and allow lining works to be done to correct profile, whilst main tunnel lining and excavation continues Use a Systematic Pre-injection technique to excavate through the known fault and RBM zone to pass without collapsing the face and minimizing water ingress (original tunnel took 2 years to cross this zone) Combined use of Meyco Potenza, ribs and Shotcrete to ensure face stability during excavation in combination with pre-injection

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Pre-injection Technique used :

Types of Injection materials used : Microfine Cement - Rheocem 650 - 250T Colloidal Silica Meyco MP 320 - 80T PU Meyco 355 1K for sealing backflows 500kg OPC was trialed but no penetration was achieved, despite water inflows continuing

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Two-stage pre-injection process chosen with rapid hardening microcement and colloidal silica

1. Rheocem 650 2. MEYCO MP320 colloidal silica

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Drilling Sequence and pipe installation

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Packer Installation

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Results stable and substantially dry

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Conditions in original 20 year old tunnel

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Arrow Head East and West Tunnels

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Arrow Head East and West Water Supply Tunnels

5.8m dia. Herrenknecht hydbrid Hard Rock TBM Variable and unpredictable Rock Conditions Soft Rock <2mPa to 310 MPa. 900m from San Andreas fault. High Porosity with completely decomposed granite. Multi Directional drilling head for grouting 11 grout holes @ 8, 15 holes @ 1.5, additional 19 holes at 4through forward bulkhead and cutter head Because of the sensitive nature of surrounding environment, US Forest Service limited the allowable water ingress to
33 litres/sec.

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Cost-effective pre-injections: Water ingress reduction and ground improvement in difficult rock

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Arrowhead Tunnels Project San Bernardino, CA

Pre-injections : drilling patterns

1,5 Face 4 Face

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Arrow Head East and West Tunnels Main Problems

Rock mass showed very unpredictable behavior
Large ultrafine cement takes (several thousands of lb) in one hole and nothing in adjacent regardless of water yield from a few gpm to 200gpm Water and silt jets occurred. Several m3 of sand can come in before packer can be placed. Cement picks up fine silt materials and creates filter cake blocking cracks and fissures. Typically no cement intake except when they lost a lot of ground. Porous rock mass if insufficiently grouted would lead face and periphery collapse causing long stoppages for weeks. Trials with Cement grouting with varying w/c ratios and stable grouts was proving ineffective in sealing.
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Arrow Head East and West Tunnels Solutions

Systematic rock grouting with cement to fill voids to replace washed out materials. Extensive use of high penetrating colloidal silica gel with low viscosity and particle size to waterproof the rock mass. Down stage drilling process using simple bag packers to stabilize drill holes for packer placement at correct location ahead of tunnel face.

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Plastic Bagpacker and borehole liner for down stage drilling process

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Bagpacker ready for grout expansion

(Using quick setting mortar)

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Drillstring and Bagpacker

(Typically down-stage drilling and grouting)

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Inflatable packer placed

(Typically at 9 m depth)

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Typical solution in bad ground. Double and triple cover grouting system.
Ring 3292
Water hit at 60ft with silt washout, 100 to 220gpm, pressure 250psi. Injection 300,000lb cement to replace lost ground 19,000 gallons of colloidal silica to water proof the rock mass. Injection sequence 22 days to complete, advance of 6 rings (30ft)

Ring 3298
Drill out to 140 ft, water down to 20gpm with 200psi 5000lb cement, 25,000 gallons of colloidal silica, complete after 6 days Advance 30 ft

Ring 3304 - at start of original high volume and pressure water.

Drill out to 140 ft, water down to 38gpm with 160 psi 26,000lb cement, 15,000 gallons of colloidal silica, complete after 5 days Advance 30 ft and continue cylce until required
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Arrow head conclusions

Systematic use of pre-injection with appropriate materials allowed successful excavation of TBM in poor ground conditions. Requires highly competent and dedicated contractor. Custom designed TBM required with effective probe drilling equipment designed fit for the purpose, 45 positions available for drilling. Use of appropriate colloidal silica mineral grout to penetrate fine cracks and fissures and flowing ground where ultrafine microcement could not penetrate.

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Many thanks for your attention

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