Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 24 (2009) 466471

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Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/tust

Trenchless Technology Research

Experimental study on the effect of injecting slurry inside a jacking

pipe tunnel in silt stratum
Zhou Song a,b, Wang Yingyi a, Huang Xingchun a,*
a
b

Shanghai Jiao Tong University, 1954 Huashan Road, Shanghai 200030, PR China
Shanghai No. 2 Municipal Engineering Co. Ltd., Shanghai 200030, PR China

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 1 October 2007
Received in revised form 29 October 2008
Accepted 3 November 2008
Available online 27 December 2008
Keywords:
Silt stratum
Pipe jacking
Effect of injecting slurry
Model test

a b s t r a c t
Through a three-dimensional model test, the variations of jacking force and ground settlement inside a
jacking pipe tunnel in silt stratum, under testing conditions which include non-injection and different
synchronized injections of slurry, are simulated in order to study the effect of traditional thixotropic
slurry (consisting of bentonite, CMC (Carboxymethyl Cellulose) and soda ash) and HL compound slurry
to decrease frictional resistance and ground settlement. And then their mechanical properties are investigated according to the different slurry micro-structure features which are captured by an electron
microscope. The tests and analysis demonstrate that: (1) injecting thixotropic slurry inside a jacking pipe
tunnel has conspicuous effects in reducing frictional resistance, and (2) viscosity and condensation force
of the slurry have a dominant effect on decreasing frictional resistance and ground settlement, respectively. To reach optimal jacking distance and efciently control ground settlement, more attention should
be given to slurry parameters in the actual engineering processes. The research results indicated excellent
effects when they were applied to the jacking pipe of Shanghai Lingang New City Sewage Conduit.
2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Up to now, many studies on the variations of jacking force and
ground settlement, which are extruded inside a jacking pipe tunnel, have been done by means of laboratory tests and engineering
practice as well as theoretical analysis to investigate the effect of
slurry on decreasing frictional resistance and ground settlement.
These studies have utilized pipe jacking in clay stratum (Chapman,
1999; Marshall, 1998; Barla et al., 2006; Chapman and Ichioka,
1999; Pellet-Beaucour and Kastner, 2002; Ding, 2003; Cao and
Wu, 2005; Wei et al., 2004; Feng et al., 2003; Qiao and Deng,
2000; Luo and Zhou, 2003; Fang et al., 2003; Fang and Weng,
1998). However, as is already known, the effect of thixotropic slurry is quite different due to the complexity of geological conditions,
groundwater and the microstructure of soil. For silt stratum, as it
exhibits loose soil structure, low binding power and susceptibility
to groundwater, both condensation force and viscosity of the slurry
will inevitably be affected. Thus the effects of decreasing frictional
resistance and ground settlement are also impacted. During the
last few years, there has been hardly any systematic research in
this eld, and little is known about the results on the effect of
thixotropic slurry in silt stratum. From the above-mentioned research results, the actual effects in the eld of a jacking pipe tunnel
in silt stratum have not yet been sufciently analyzed.
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: huangxc@sjtu.edu.cn (X. Huang).
0886-7798/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.tust.2008.11.003

In this paper, based on the pipe jacking of Shanghai Lingang

New City Sewage Conduit, the construction process was simulated
by remodeling a sampling of silt stratum in situ. Thus the effect
and mechanical properties of decreasing friction and ground settlement of thixotropic slurry, which have different physical and
mechanical properties, are studied in pipe jacking conduit. In addition, the experimental study results could be directly applied to actual engineering processes. Thus, several theoretical and practical
ndings have been made.

2. Description of test system and method

2.1. Test system and measured point distribution
The test system is composed of a test chamber, load system,
measurement system and injection system, as shown in Figs. 13.
2.1.1. Equipments
Chamber: open upper surface and sealed other surfaces; PVC pipes(inner diameter: 100 mm, thickness: 5 mm):1 with 2000 mm
long, 12 with 120 mm long among which 6 pipes had 4  5 mm injected holes, numbered AF.
2.1.2. Load system
Hydraulic jack: the rated lifting capacity is 3t, rated hoisting
height is 140 mm; reaction planes xed on the ground.

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S. Zhou et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 24 (2009) 466471

Computer

Table 1
Soils characteristics.
Name

Water
content
(w%)

Specic
gravity
(Gs)

Dry unit
weight
(c dkN)

Sandy
3.00

silt
30.80

28.70%

2.70

10

Static Strain Gauge

Jack

40 10 50

Soil

1.5
Reaction Frame

Saturation
(Sr%)

Cohesion
(C kPa)

Internal
friction
angle ()

14.60

0.81

95.00

1.5

Soil

Slurry pipe

Void
ratio
(e0)

150
Test chamber

1.5
Serious shunt
Reserve pulp barrel
Pressure pump

2.1.3. Measurement system

Horizontal displacement gauges, which are equidistantly laid in
the position of 400 mm, 100 mm *110 mm box section from the
upper section of the space (No. S1S5 in Fig. 2 respectively); pressure sensors; 50 channel static resistance strain gauge; automatic
data acquisition system.
2.1.4. Injection system
Slurry barrels; injecting pipes; pressure pump; pressure gauge;
plastic pipes with 5 mm in diameter.

Pressure sensor

2.2. Description of test method

S5
15

400

5
15

S4

90 140

250

S3

970

jacking pipe tunnel

110

S2

190

240

S1

60

Fig. 1. Abridged general view of test system (dm).

1470

Fig. 2. Planform of test model and measured point (cm).

15

The soil samples in the test, taken from the Shanghai Lingang
New City Sewage Jacking Conduit, were in silt stratum on site. In
order to simulate the conditions of the construction site, and also
make several tests comparable, the soil samples were screened before placing them into a box, then reshaped and saturated by adding water to the soil, so that the density of soil in silt stratum was
the same as that of the undisturbed soil. The test methods anticipated and encompassed the variations in construction site conditions at various tunnel locations.
To simulate the annular gap between the tunnel structure and
the soil at the actual construction site, a stainless steel ring with
5 mm thickness was xed in the forefront of the pipe.
The silt lling the box was separated to 5 layers, each with
20 cm in depth, and each layer was compacted to consolidate.
When the second layer was lled, the 2000 mm long pipe penetrating the whole model box was inserted into the box and then lled
the box completely with silt. The steps listed above were repeated
before each test.
The No. A short pipe with injected holes was linked to the long
pipe box through stainless steel ring. A hydraulic jack was placed
in the posterior of the No. A short pipe. And it started to jack pipe
at the rate of 1cm/5min when the jacking force sensors and displacement sensors were properly arranged. At the same time, the
data acquisition system was activated to collect data.
One short-pipe without injected holes was linked with No. A
pipe when No.A pipe had completed jacking, then simulation of
an injecting system was pulsed on. The steps listed above were repeated throughout the entire trial. Two types of slurry were injected at the same pressure through the same period to make
sure the injected volume be equal. Soils characteristics are shown
in Table 1.

3. Analysis of test results

3.1. Effects of decreasing friction by injecting

Fig. 3. Panorama of test system.

In order to study the effect of injecting slurry in silt stratum, the

distribution of jacking forces in the construction process was simulated in different operating modes, such as injecting traditional
slurry, injecting HL compound slurry and without injecting slurry
at all. The composition parameters of thixotropic slurry are shown
in Table 2.

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S. Zhou et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 24 (2009) 466471

Table 2
Components ratio of thixotropic slurry.
Slurry type

Ratio of components

Traditional slurry
HL compound slurry

Bentonite

CMC

Soda

Water

Polymer

1
1

0.012
0.012

0.05
0.05

5.999
5.999

0
0.05

In order to facilitate comparative analysis, the relation between

jacking force ratio and jacking distance ratio, under the conditions
of non-injection slurry and injecting different kinds of slurry, is
summarized in Fig. 4.
It is known that the jacking force ratio distribution curve without injecting slurry has the following characteristics: Firstly, the
jacking force increases as the jacking distance increases because
the effective length of the pipe generally increases continuously.
Secondly, the jacking force is discontinuous at certain locations,
which, for example, occurred in one control section of the docking
socket. At this point the jacking process would stall, regressing to a
lower rate, and then it increases due to driving of the jacking pipe.
The jacking force would suddenly increase when new pipe is set
and the hydraulic jack continues to start again, but it would
quickly return to the stable value after a very short time.
When injecting traditional slurry, the jacking force would increase with increasing jacking distance. The jacking force is also
discontinuous at docking new pipe sockets. However, the disturbance of soil around the pipe would be extremely small because
of injecting thixotropic slurry in the gap between the pipe and
the surrounding soil. The thixotropic slurry could play a important
role in easing the effect of interaction between them. Thus, the
jacking force value in this test would be less than that without
injection.
Similar to that of traditional slurry, while injecting HL compound slurry, the jacking force would increase with increasing
jacking distance. The jacking force is also discontinuous at docking
new pipe sockets. But the jacking force value is noticeably larger
than with that with injecting traditional slurry.
It has also been shown that all of the jacking forces are consistently constant when the jacking distance is less than some value
at left of short pause (the ratio of jacking distance to jacking distance maximum is approximately 0.466) shown in Fig. 4. The reason is that the shield formed by slurry gradually makes the
frictional resistance decrease.
In addition, in order to investigate the change of the jacking
force and time-dependence of slurry effect, the jacking pipe is

No slurry
Traditional slurry
HL compound slurry
y=0.00231exp(x/0.20117)+0.58554
y=0.27692exp(x/0.97548)-0.06290
y=0.01762exp(x/0.31452)+0.00754

1.0

0.8

paused for 24-h at the place shown in Fig. 4 and then the hydraulic
jack is restarted for jacking again. It is shown that the jacking
forces suddenly increase under both conditions of injecting HL
compound slurry and no slurry. The reason is that the slurry transforms from solution to gel due to its thixotropy during the pause
period. Thus, the reduced friction effect of thixotropic slurry decreases during this process. As a result, the jacking force suddenly
increases by 66%.
In contrast with the jacking force, under the condition of injecting traditional slurry, the jacking force maximum value decreases
by 47.8%, the average value decreases 78.6%. Under the condition
of injecting HL compound slurry, its maximum capacity decreases
by 25%, and the average value decreases by 15%.
It is shown that all of the injections of thixotropic slurry can
greatly decrease the frictional resistance of the jacking pipe tunnel
in silt stratum according to the above experimental results. And
decreasing frictional effect and behaviors of thixotropic slurry have
very large differences with each other. If one only wants to decrease friction, traditional slurry is better than the HL compound
slurry. The study of slurry micro mechanism would explain it
below.
The changes of friction per unit area along jacking distance of
model under three experimental conditions are shown in Fig. 5.
In all three experimental conditions, the friction ratio per unit
area gradually decreases in negative exponential type. When
increasing jacking distance ratio, the friction ratio would gradually
become more stable under three experimental conditions: in
which that of no injection stabilizes in 0.18, that of injecting traditional slurry stabilizes in 0.07, and that of injecting HL compound
slurry is more or less 0.09, as shown in Fig. 5.
It appears that traditional slurry, in pipe jacking conduit in silt
stratum, plays a more signicant role than HL compound slurry
in terms of reduced frictional resistance.
3.2. Control soil settlement by injecting
Under three different experimental conditions, the relationship
between soil settlement and jacking distance is shown in Fig. 6
(comprised of three graphs). Among them, (a) non-injection; (b)
injecting traditional slurry; (c) injecting HL compound slurry. As
shown as Fig. 6:1) at the beginning, the soil settlement is small under the different conditions, it starts to rise up while the distance
between the trim section and settlement monitoring line decreases, it then becomes stable after the distance ratio reaches
0.4. 2) It can be shown in the Figs. 6a6c that the settlement values

Pause Jacking for 24 hours

1.0

No slurry
Traditionalslurry
HL complex slurry

0.8

y=2.42112exp(-x/0.11669)+0.17996
y=1.62627exp(-x/0.13076)+0.08804
y=0.00005exp(-x/0.14442)+0.03954

0.6

f/fmax

F/Fmax

0.6

0.4

0.2

0.2

0.0

-0.2

0.4

0.0

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

D/Dmax
Fig. 4. Comparison of Jacking force in 3 tests.

1.0

0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

D/Dmax
Fig. 5. Comparison of Average friction of unit area in 3 tests.

S. Zhou et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 24 (2009) 466471

tion of HL composite slurry. In the case of monitoring point S3,

in contrast to the settlements without injecting, it is decreased
by 68% with injecting traditional slurry, and it is decreased by
75% with injecting HL compound slurry. HL compound slurry has
a better effect to control settlement than traditional slurry.
As described above, the jacking force and soil settlement are
characterized by: (1) jacking force control and settlement control
are very unfavorable without injection; (2) in reducing friction
and controlling soil settlement, traditional slurry and HL compound slurry have both merits and demerits. In the pipe jacking
in silt stratum, the traditional slurry is conducive to reduce friction.
However, HL composite slurry is better suited to control settlement. Selection is done according to the specic project needs.

0.2

0.0
S1

s/smax

-0.2

S5
S2

-0.4

S4
-0.6

y=-0.167+0.165/(1+exp((x-0.189)/0.164))
y=-0.190+0.178/(1+exp((x-0.281)/0.154))
y=-0.458+0.374/(1+exp((x-0.186)/0.121))
y=-0.544+0.487/(1+exp((x-0.275)/0.119))
y=-0.971+0.856/(1+exp((x-0.257)/0.089))

-0.8

469

S3

4. Analysis of micro mechanism

-1.0
0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

D/D

0.8

1.0

Silt stratum has the following features: loose structure, saturation, low bond strength and large internal friction angle, so that
soil is directly linked with the outer surface of the pipe, increased
jacking frictional resistance appears without injection. While
injecting, a slurry jacket is formed in the gap between slurry pipe
and soil, it serves to lubricate and support the soil.
In order to analyze the applicability and mechanical properties
of different slurries in silt stratum, the microstructure of slurry is
summarily analyzed. According to the trial results extracted from
the literature (Ge and Zhang, 2005), electron microscopic structures of surface and section of traditional slurry and HL compound
slurry are shown in Fig. 7.

max

Fig. 6a. Ground settlement under the condition of no injection.

0.2
S5
0.0

S2
S1

-0.2

s/smax

S4
-0.4

S3

Measuring Line

-0.6

-0.8

y = 0.067 -0.029/(1 + exp((x+1.288e19)/-1.464e23))

y =-0.078+0.220/(1 + exp((x+0.166)/0.203))
y =-0.170 +0.207/(1 + exp((x-0.346)/0.031))
y = -0.345+0.294/(1 + exp((x-0.305)/0.071))
y = -0.671+0.546/(1 + exp((x-0.299)/0.049))

-1.0
0.0

0.2

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

D/Dmax
Fig. 6b. Ground settlement while injecting traditional slurry.

0.2

S5

0.0

S2
S1
-0.2

S4

s/smax

S3
-0.4

y =-0.010+0.012/(1 + exp((x-0.393)/0.026))

Measuring Line

-0.6

-0.8

-1.0
0.0

0.2

y =-0.066+0.065/(1 + exp((x-0.270)/0.054))
y =-0.161+0.176/(1 + exp((x-0.312)/0.124))
y =-0.158+0.162/(1 + exp((x-0.276)/0.065))
y =-0.259+0.263/(1 + exp((x-0.289)/0.067))

0.4

0.6

0.8

1.0

D/Dmax
Fig. 6c. Ground settlement while injecting HL compound slurry.

under the three experimental conditions differ signicantly: the

maximum of soil settlement ratio is 1.0 without injection, it is
0.7 with injection of traditional slurry and it is 0.3 with injec-

Fig. 7. Microscopic composition of slurry.

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S. Zhou et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 24 (2009) 466471

25

Traditional slurry

0
Surface viscosity (AV)

Static shear (G10)

Dynamic shear (YP)

Fig. 8. Comparison of Condensation force and viscosity of two slurries.

The results show that the density of HL compound slurry is signicantly higher than that of traditional slurry. Therefore, HL compound slurry has a comparatively better suspension supporting
effect in silt stratum. Ground settlement is controlled more effectively in macro.
The test results of viscosity and condensation force of two
materials are shown in Fig. 8.
Due to added polymer materials, in contrast with traditional
slurry, the surface viscosity of HL compound slurry is greater, dynamic and static shear strength are also greater. The friction per
unit area between HL compound slurry and pipeline is greater than
that of traditional slurry, thus the effect of HL compound slurry to
reduce friction resistance is less than traditional slurry.
As mentioned above, in the jacking pipe projects, the friction
resistance reduction per unit area depends on the surface viscosity
of slurry, static shear stress and dynamic shear stress; slurry density has the big impact on controlling ground settlements.
5. Analysis of application to engineering
To verify the validity, test results are compared with measured
data in the pipe jacking of Shanghai Lingang New City Sewage Conduit. The relationship between jacking force and jacking distance
in the construction site is shown in Fig. 9, and the relationship between friction resistance per unit and jacking distance is shown in
Fig. 10.
In general, the jacking force would increase while jacking distance increases, the measured results correspond to the test results. It is consistent with the test results that jacking force
becomes discontinuous at about 1100 m set because of stopping
the jacking machine for materials. As shown in Fig. 10, friction

3500

North Line Tunnel

South Line Tunnel

Jacking force, T

3000
2500
2000
1500

Jump point of jacking force

15

10

-5
-200

200

400

600

800 1000

1200 1400 1600

1800

Jacking Distance, m
Fig. 10. Average friction per unit area vs. jacking distance in-situ.

25
20
15
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
-20
-25
-30
-35
-40
-45
-50
-55
-60

y=-3.98257+4.01114/ (1+exp((x-17.20953)/1.04194))
y=-5.68753+5.74287/ (1+exp((x-14.11026)/3.42958))
y=-12.84174+13.80006/ (1+exp((x-10.44412)/4.71637))
y=-13.67332+14.73749/ (1+exp((x-10.61417)/4.9347))
y=22.31763-20.68415/ (1+exp((x-12.55832)/3.04089))

6m

6m

6m

6m

B13B11B10B12B1

B14

B13

B12

B11
B10

Tunnel
0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

Time, day
Fig. 11. Relationship between ground settlement and time in-situ.

resistance per unit is stable during the jacking process, from

1 kPa to 2 kPa. This is consistent with test results
The changes of the settlements in actual operating conditions
are very similar to that in the test, as shown in Fig. 11. The monitoring positions were placed 10m above one house (numbered
B10B14), and the settlements were measured since the working
face was 20 m behind the monitoring section. At the beginning of
the pipe-jacking, the ground exhibits slight uplift, therefore, settlements occur in the rst ve days after jacking, then the settlements
vary signicantly and the rate of settlement increases, settlement
changes rapidly, that is to say, the change rate is greatest in the
period of 1020 days. The rate of settlement becomes less after
20 days, settlement is stable in 30 days, and the maximum reaches
23 mm.
6. Conclusions

1000

Engineering monitoring results and test results show that:

500
0
0

North Line Tunnel

South Line Tunnel

20

12m

10

Settlement, mm

20

Average friction of unit area, KPa

HL Compound slurry
30

200

400

600

800

1000

1200

1400

1600

Jacking Distance, m
Fig. 9. Relation between jacking force and jacking distance.

1800

(1) Injecting thixotropic slurry behind pipe wall has a signicant

effect of reducing friction resistance and controlling ground
settlement.
(2) High density slurry could better support soil and reduce the
surface settlement, due to looseness and low cohesion and
also saturation of soil in silt stratum.

S. Zhou et al. / Tunnelling and Underground Space Technology 24 (2009) 466471

(3) Based on having formed a slurry jacket, the frictional force is

directly controlled by surface viscosity and gel force of
slurry, then the jacking force is controlled by them.
(4) Due to thixotropy, slurry exhibits solgel transformation
after a period of stationary standing, which minimizes its
effect on reducing friction resistance, as a result, the jacking
force would suddenly increase.

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