• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.97-107
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• 2024

The accurate prediction of grouting upward diffusion height is crucial for estimating the bearing capacity of tip-grouted piles. Borehole construction during the installation of bored piles induces soil unloading, resulting in both radial stress loss in the surrounding soil and an impact on grouting fluid diffusion. In this study, a modified model is developed for predicting grout diffusion height. This model incorporates the classical rheological equation of power-law cement grout and the cavity reverse expansion model to account for different degrees of unloading. A series of single-pile tip grouting and static load tests are conducted with varying initial grouting pressures. The test results demonstrate a significant effect of vertical grout diffusion on improving pile lateral friction resistance and bearing capacity. Increasing the grouting pressure leads to an increase in the vertical height of the grout. A comparison between the predicted values using the proposed model and the actual measured results reveals a model error ranging from -12.3% to 8.0%. Parametric analysis shows that grout diffusion height increases with an increase in the degree of unloading, with a more pronounced effect observed at higher grouting pressures. Two case studies are presented to verify the applicability of the proposed model. Field measurements of grout diffusion height correspond to unloading ratios of 0.68 and 0.71, respectively, as predicted by the model. Neglecting the unloading effect would result in a conservative estimate.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.23 no.2
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• pp.151-163
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• 2020

Grouting method is an effective way of reinforcing cracked rock masses and plugging water gushing. Current grouting diffusion models are generally developed for horizontal cracks, which is contradictory to the fact that the crack generally occurs in rock masses with irregular spatial distribution characteristics in real underground environments. To solve this problem, this study selected a cement-sodium silicate slurry (C-S slurry) generally used in engineering as a fast-curing grouting material and regarded the C-S slurry as a Bingham fluid with time-varying viscosity for analysis. Based on the theory of fluid mechanics, and by simultaneously considering the deadweight of slurry and characteristics of non-uniform spatial distribution of viscosity of fast-curing grouts, a theoretical model of slurry diffusion in an oblique crack in rock masses at constant grouting rate was established. Moreover, the viscosity and pressure distribution equations in the slurry diffusion zone were deduced, thus quantifying the relationship between grouting pressure, grouting time, and slurry diffusion distance. On this basis, by using a 3-d finite element program in multi-field coupled software Comsol, the numerical simulation results were compared with theoretical calculation values, further verifying the effectiveness of the theoretical model. In addition, through the analysis of two engineering case studies, the theoretical calculations and measured slurry diffusion radius were compared, to evaluate the application effects of the model in engineering practice. Finally, by using the established theoretical model, the influence of cracking in rock masses on the diffusion characteristics of slurry was analysed. The results demonstrate that the inclination angle of the crack in rock masses and azimuth angle of slurry diffusion affect slurry diffusion characteristics. More attention should be paid to the actual grouting process. The results can provide references for determining grouting parameters of fast-curing grouts in engineering practice.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.155-171
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• 2023

Aiming at the grouting treatment of water inflow in karst conduits, a visualized experiment system for conduit-type grouting blocking was developed. Through the improved water supply system and grouting system, and the optimized multisource information monitoring system, the real-time observation of diffusion and deposition of slurry, and the data acquisition of pressure and velocity during the whole process of grouting were realized, which breaks through the problem that the monitoring element is easy to fail due to slurry adhesion in conventional test system. Based on the grouting experiments in static and flowing water, the diffusion and deposition behavior of the quick-setting slurry under different working conditions were analyzed. The temporal and spatial variation behavior of the pressure and velocity were studied, and the blocking mechanism of the grouting were further revealed. The results showed that: (1) Under the flowing water condition, the counter-flow diffusion distance of slurry was negatively correlated with the flow water velocity and the volume ratio of cement and sodium silicate (C-S ratio), and positively correlated with the grouting volume. The slurry deposition thickness was negatively correlated with the flowing water velocity, and positively correlated with the grouting volume and C-S ratio. (2) The pressure increased slowly before blocking of the flowing water and rapidly after blocking in karst conduits. (3) With the continuous progress of grouting, the flowing water velocity decreased slowly first, then significantly, and finally tended to be stable. According to the research results, some engineering recommendations were put forward for the grouting treatment of the conduit-type water inflow disaster, which has been successfully applied in the treatment project of the China Resources Cement (Pingnan) Limestone Mine. This study provided some guidance and reference for the parameter optimization of grouting for the treatment projects of water inflow in karst conduits.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.357-369
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• 2020

Different from the conventional planar fracture and simplified Newton model, for power-law slurries with a lower water-cement ratio commonly used in grouting engineering, flow model in geological rough fractures is built based on ten standard profiles from Barton (1977) in this study. The numerical algorithm is validated by experimental results. The flow mechanism, grout superiority, and water plugging of pseudo plastic slurry are revealed. The representations of hydraulic grouting properties for JRCs are obtained. The results show that effective plugging is based on the mechanical mechanisms of the fluctuant structural surface and higher viscosity at the middle of the fissure. The formulas of grouting parameters are always variable with the roughness and shear movement, which play a key role in grouting. The roughness can only be neglected after reaching a threshold. Grouting pressure increases with increasing roughness and has variable responses for different apertures within standard profiles. The whole process can be divided into three stationary zones and three transition zones, and there is a mutation region (10 < JRCs < 14) in smaller geological fractures. The fitting equations of different JRCs are obtained of power-law models satisfying the condition of -2 < coefficient < 0. The effects of small apertures and moderate to larger roughness (JRCs > 10.8) on the permeability of surfaces cannot be underestimated. The determination of grouting parameters depends on the slurry groutability in terms of its weakest link with discontinuous streamlines. For grouting water plugging, the water-cement ratio, grouting pressure and grouting additives should be determined by combining the flow conditions and the apparent widths of the main fracture and rough surface. This study provides a calculation method of grouting parameters for variable cement-based slurries. And the findings can help for better understanding of fluid flow and diffusion in geological fractures.

• Journal of Korean Tunnelling and Underground Space Association
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.345-363
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• 2024

Steel pipe reinforced grouting method has been widely used to strengthen the crown of tunnel face and prevent groundwater leakage during tunnel excavation. Various injection procedures without sealing have recently been suggested to enhance efficiency. There are two representative injection methods. One is simultaneous injection in segmented batches, and the other is multiple injection using the external packer. The pros and cons of each method were discussed in terms of construction duration and equipment. However, it has yet to be discussed how the injection procedure affects the grout diffusion range in the ground. This study aims to evaluate the grout diffusion range quantitatively by considering the practical grouting sequences. The grout viscosity was measured by laboratory testing. Then, the numerical modeling was structured using the commercial computational fluid dynamics software. Finally, the grout diffusion range affected by the injection procedure and ground conditions was evaluated by performing the numerical parametric study. The results showed that the injection method highly affected the grout diffusion range, especially for inhomogeneous soil. Consequently, it is anticipated that the proper method of steel pipe reinforced grouting will be suggested.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.391-405
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• 2022

A newly proposed grouting simulation method, the sequential diffusion solidification method was introduced into the numerical simulation of combined bi-borehole grouting. The traditional, critical and difficult numerical problem for the temporal and spatial variation simulation of the slurry is solved. Thus, numerical simulation of grouting and blocking of flowing water in karst conduits is realized and the mechanism understanding of the combined bi-borehole technology is promoted. The sensitivity analysis of the influence factors of combined bi-borehole grouting was investigated. Through orthogonal experiment, the influences of proximal and distal slurry properties, the initial flow velocity of the conduit and the proximal and distal slurry injection rate on the blocking efficiency are compared. The velocity variation, pressure variation and slurry deposition phenomenon were monitored, and the flow field characteristics and slurry outflow behavior were analyzed. The interaction mechanism between the proximal and distal slurries in the combined bi-borehole grouting is revealed. The results show that, under the orthogonal experiment conditions, the slurry injection rate has the greatest impact on blocking. With a constant slurry injection rate, the blocking efficiency can be increased by more than 30% when using slurry with weak time-dependent viscosity behavior in the distal borehole and slurry with strong time-dependent viscosity behavior in the proximal borehole respectively. According to the results of numerical simulation, the grouting scheme of "intercept the flow from the proximal borehole by quick-setting slurry, and grout cement slurry from the distal borehole" is put forward and successfully applied to the water inflow treatment project of China Resources Cement (Pingnan) Limestone Mine.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.115-127
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• 2019

The low-flow grouting injection technique, the target construction method for this study, is a method of pouring mortar into the ground by non-emission replacement principle, which can be expected to increase the density of the ground, and, in some cases, be used as a base file using the strength of the high injection solids, along with low noise, low pollution, and high durability. To verify that the dynamic characteristics of the ground are improved by the low-flow injection technique, the test work was conducted on the site and physical tests were performed, and the quality of the improvement formed in the ground was verified through the indoor test on the core and core recovery rate was analyzed. The density logs test layer calculated the volume density of the ground layer by using the Compton scattering of gamma-rays, and the sonic logs was tested on the ground around the drill hole using a detector consisting of sonar and receiver devices inside the drill hole. As a result of the measurement of the change in physical properties (density and sonic logs) before and after grouting, both properties were basically increased after infusion of grout agent. However, the variation in density increase was greater than the increase in speed after grouting, and the ground density measurement method was thought to be effective in measuring the fill effect of the filler. Strength and core recovery rates were measured from specimens taken after the age of 28 days, and the results of the test results of the diffusion and strength test of the improved products were verified to satisfy the design criteria, thereby satisfying the seismic performance reinforcement.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.11
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• pp.149-156
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• 2020

Permeation grouting effectively enhances soil strength and decreases permeability of soil; however, the flow of grout is heavily affected by anisotropy of hydraulic conductivity in layers. Therefore, this study investigates the effect of permeability anisotropy on the effective radius of horizontal permeation grout using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). We modeled the horizontal permeation grout flow as a two-phase viscous fluid flow in porous media, and the model incorporated the chemical diffusion and the viscosity variation due to hardening. The numerical simulation reveals that the permeability anisotropy shapes the grout bulb to be elliptic and the dissolution-driven diffusion causes a gradual change in grout pore saturation at the edge of the grout bulb. For the grout pore saturations of 10%, 50% and 90%, the horizontal and vertical radii of grout bulb are estimated when the horizontal-to-vertical permeability ratio varies from 0.01 to 100, and the predictive model equations are suggested. This result contributes to more efficient design of injection strategy in formation layers with permeability anisotropy.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.23-29
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• 2014

So far, the grouting using pressure injection has been extensively used to avoid adverse effects such as soil disturbance. Whereas, the pressure injection to the limitations of the diffusion range, so that the kinks would last injection of cement particles by introducing a frequency oscillation effect improved injection method have been recently developed. In this study, a pilot test was performed to compare injection effects of the both methods. The injections using both methods were tested on the embankment which consists of core clay and weathered soil. Subsequently, the injected volume, SPT N values, in-situ permeability and electrical resistivity were measured to compare their effects. The vibration method showed more effective permeation comparing with the pressure method. Also, it showed more homogeneously improved ground than the existing method. For SPT results, the vibration method presented increase of mean N value as much as 17.4 % comparing with the conventional method. Higher electrical resistivity was presented in case of injecting with vibration method and it indicated the injection was extensively completed. Finally, it is expected that the economic feasibility will be improved by decrease of drilling spacing, when the existing method is replaced with vibration method.

• Journal of the Korean GEO-environmental Society
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.15-23
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• 2023

The grouting method is a method of construction for the purpose of waterproofing and reinforcing soft ground. When grout is injected into the ground, there are various types of penetration and diffusion of grout depending on the shape of the ground, the size of soil, the porosity, and the presence or absence of groundwater. the current situation. Therefore, in this study, to investigate the penetration performance of the grouting to conductive material, laboratory tests were performed on the addition of the conductive material. In the injection test, 0%, 3%, and 5% of the mixed water were added as conductive materials to the grout, and the original ground condition was composed of various types of ground composed of gravel and silica sand. Conductive grout is injected by pressure into the model ground using a dedicated injection device, and the injection time (t), pressure (p), flow rate (v) and injection amount (q) are measured, and the hardened body injected in the model ground is collected. Penetration performance was evaluated. In the results of the grout injection experiment, the amount of conductive material used and the grout injection rate showed an inverse relationship, and it was confirmed that the penetration pattern was changed according to the size of the soil particles in the model ground. The grout containing the conductive material has relatively good penetration into the ground and excellent strength and durability of the hardened body, so it was judged that it could be used as an additive for measuring the penetration range of the grout.