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Grouting Theory
12.1
INTRODUCTION
12.2
BASIC CONSIDERATIONS
When grout is injected through the open end of a small pipe placed
below the water table in a uniform, isotropic granular soil, the ow of grout
is radial. Thus, under certain conditions, the groutgroundwater interface
becomes and remains spherical. The required conditions include interface
stability and hinge upon specic relationships between viscosities and ow
rates. Flow rates, in turn, are dependent on pumping pressure for given
formation permeability and grout viscosity.
12.3
STABILITY OF INTERFACE
lenses. This factor is used to advantage in the two-shot system (in the
Joosten process, for example, sodium silicate and calcium chloride) by
injecting the most viscous material rst. In such systems, the intruding
ngers and lenses interlock to form a more or less continuous gel matrix,
without displacing all the formation water from the voids. In contrast, an
expanding stable interface displaces virtually all the pore water.
12.4
taken as 1=2 LD. Also on a coarse level, the indication is that grout
acceptance will vary directly with the pressure, and inversely with the
viscosity.
The open passages through soils and many rock formations consist of
tortuous winding routes of variable cross-sectional size and shape made up
of interconnected adjacent voids. Analysis of ow through such individual
passages is unproductive. If we straighten the route and unify the crosssectional size and shape, analysis becomes meaningful, although not
necessarily applicable. Poiseuilles law does this for a long tube of small
diameter through which a liquid is owing slowly:
V
ppr4 t
8Lm
where
12.5
12.6
The greater the pumping pressure, the farther the distance for effective
pressure dissipation and the longer the time for establishment of steady-state
ow conditions. During the time interval between pressure application and
steady-state ow, pumping pressure increases if the pumping rate is held
constant. When pumping at low pressures into more pervious materials such
as coarse sand and ne gravel, new equilibrium conditions establish
themselves quickly. When pumping at high pressures and into less pervious
materials such as ne sand, silts, and siltstone, new equilibrium conditions
are generally not reached during the grout pumping time (i.e., either
pumping pressure must be slowly increased to maintain the pumping rate or
pumping rate must be decreased to keep pressures from becoming
excessive). Of course, if grout begins to set up in the formation while
pumping continues, this reduces the formation permeability and either
decreases the ow or increases the pressure or does both.
Limitations on allowable pumping pressures should be established by
the job owners engineer. Such allowable pressures should recognize the fact
that when working at short gel times, only a very small quantity of grout is
in the liquid state within the formation at any one instant. For example,
when grouting near a dam with cement grout or with large volumes of
chemical grout at long gel times, it may be necessary to assume that a major
portion of the dam base may be subjected to the uplift forces at the grouting
pressure. On the other hand, an insignicant portion of the dam base would
be subjected to uid pressure when grouting with chemicals at short gel
times. Thus, the allowable grouting pressures can be much higher than if
cement were used or long gel times with chemical grouts.
Determining an exact safety factor against overpressuring a formation,
(which would result in either uplift or fracturing), is seldom done for a
specic job site. Instead, grouters will use previous experience, or resort to
commonly accepted rules of thumb. The one most often used for soils is one
psi per foot of overburden depth. When grouting cohesionless strata
underlying cohesive strata, uplift (if it occurs) will generally occur at strata
interfaces. Thus, the cohesive strength of clayey soils does not necessarily
permit higher grouting pressures than could be used in sands.
When grouting in sands and silts with short gel times or with very
small grout volumes, particularly in strata overlain by clays, grouting
pressures may be safely increased above the values based on cover alone.
Such pressures cannot be computed without extensive laboratory test data
since they are related to the plastic characteristics of the soils. However, it is
reasonable to grout at pressures approaching twice the rule-of-thumb value.
When grouting in cemented sand or siltstone or in fractured rock,
allowable grouting pressures may be signicantly higher than those which
can be used in granular deposits. Such pressures should be determined by
FRACTURING
SUMMARY
Darcys law and Poiseuilles law both deal with the ow of uids through
porous media. Because of the haphazard arrangement of pore sizes and
passages in geologic formations, these theoretical equations cannot be
directly applied to grouting problems. They do, however, give order-ofmagnitude data about the effects of changing the controllable variables.
Pumping rates and pressures are interdependent, and one or both are
easily controlled during a grouting operation. The upper limits for each are
determined by specic job conditions.
12.9
REFERENCES
12.10
12.1
12.2
12.3
PROBLEMS
What properties control a grouts ability to penetrate a formation,
and the formations ability to accept grout?
What is the practical application of the creep endurance limit?
What causes an interface between grout and groundwater to be stable
or unstable?