FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OYE, OYE-EKITI

DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING

CVE 502: Building and Construction Engineering Dewatering

Construction of buildings, powerhouses, dams, locks and many other structures

requires excavation below the water table into water-bearing soils. Such excavations
require lowering the water table below the slopes and bottom of the excavation to
prevent raveling or sloughing of the slope and to ensure dry, firm working conditions
for construction operations. Dewatering is usually carried out on sandy or gravelly
soils but also occasionally on clayey soils.

Goals of Dewatering
Construction sites are dewatered for the following purposes:
1. To provide suitable working surface of the bottom of the excavation
2. To keep the bottom of excavation dry.
3. To stabilize the banks of the excavation thus avoiding the hazards of slides and
sloughing.
4. To prevent disturbance of the soil at the bottom of excavation caused by boils
or piping. Such disturbances may reduce the bearing power of the soil.
5. Lowering the water table can also be utilized to increase the effective weight of
the soil and consolidate the soil layers. Reducing lateral loads on sheeting and
bracing is another way of use.

A number of methods are available for controlling the inflow of water into an
excavation; the
choice of method will depend on:
1. the nature and permeability of the ground,
2. the extent of the area to be dewatered,
3. the depth of the water table below ground level and
4. the amount by which it has to be lowered,
5. the proposed methods of excavation and ground support,
6. the proximity of existing structures,
7. the proximity of water courses etc.

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Methods of Dewatering
The available methods of groundwater control fall into the following basic groups:
1. Surface water control like ditches, training walls, embankments. Simple
methods of diverting surface water, open excavations. Simple pumping
equipment.
2. Gravity drainage. Relatively impermeable soils. Open excavations especially
on sloping sites. Simple pumping equipment.
3. Sump pumping
A sump is merely a hole in the ground from which water is being pumped for
the purpose of removing water from the adjoining area. They are used with
ditches leading to them in large excavations. Up to maximum of 8m below
pump installation level; for greater depths a submersible pump is required. If
there are existing foundations in the vicinity, pumping may cause settlement of
these foundations. Subsidence of adjacent ground and sloughing of the lower
part of a slope (sloped pits) may occur. The sump should be preferably lined
with a filter material which has grain size gradations in compatible with the
filter rules. For prolonged pumping the sump should be prepared by first
driving sheeting around the sump area for the full depth of the sump and
installing a cage inside the sump made of wire mesh with internal strutting or a
perforating pipe filling the filter material in the space outside the cage and at
the bottom of the cage and withdrawing the sheeting.

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4. Wellpoint systems with suction pumps.
A wellpoint is 5.0 -7.5 cm diameter metal or plastic pipe 60 cm 120 cm long
which is perforated and covered with a screen. The lower end of the pipe has a
driving head with water holes for jetting. Wellpoints are connected to 5.0-7.5
cm diameter pipes known as riser pipes and are inserted into the ground by
driving or jetting. The upper ends of the riser pipes lead to a header pipe which,
in turn, connected to a pump.

The ground water is drawn by the pump into the wellpoints through the header
pipe and discharged. The wellpoints are usually installed with 0.75m 3m
spacing. This type of dewatering system is effective in soils constituted
primarily of sand fraction or other soil containing seams of such materials. In
gravels spacing required may be too close and impracticable. In clays it is also
not used because it is too slow. In silts and silt clay mixtures the use of well
points are aided by upper (0.60m 0.90m long) compacted clay seals and sand-
filtered boreholes (20cm 60cm diameter). Upper clay seals help to maintain
higher suction (vacuum) pressures and sand filters increase the amount of
discharge. Filtered boreholes are also functional in layered soil profiles

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5. Shallow (bored) wells with pumps.
Shallow wells comprise surface pumps which draw water through suction pipes
installed in bored wells drilled by the most appropriate well drilling and or
bored piling equipment. The limiting depth to which this method is employed is
about 8 m. Because wells are prebored, this method is used when hard or
variable soil conditions preclude the use of a well-point system. These wells are
used in very permeable soils when well pointing would be expensive and often
at inconveniently close centers. The shallow well can be used to extract large
quantities of water from a single hole. On congested sites use of smaller
number dewatering points is preferred (no hindrance to construction
operations) hence shallow wells may be preferred to well points. Since the
initial cost of installation is more compared to well-points it is preferred in
cases where dewatering lasts several months or more. Another field of
application is the silty soils where correct filtering is important.

6. Deep (bored) wells with pumps.

When water has to be extracted from depths greater than 8 m and it is not
feasible to lower the type of pump and suction piping used in shallow wells to
gain a few extra meters of depth the deep wells are such and submersible
pumps installed within them. A cased borehole can be sunk using well drilling
or bored piling rigs to a depth lower than the required dewatered level. The
diameter will be 150 200 mm larger then the well inner casing, which in turn
is sized to accept the submersible pump. The inner well casing has a perforated
screen over the depth requiring dewatering and terminates below in 1 m of
unperforated pipe which may serve as a sump for any material which passes the
filter. After the slotted PVC or metal well screen (casing) has been installed it is
surrounded by backfill over the unperforated pipe length and with graded filter
material over the perforated length as the outer casing progressively
withdrawn.

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 As with the shallow wells the initial pumping may involve twice the volumes
when equilibrium is achieved. Deep well systems are of use in gravels to silty
fine sands and in water bearing rocks. They are priority or use with deep
excavations and where artesian water is present below an impermeable stratum.
If this type of installation is to be designed economically the ground
permeability must be assessed from full scale pumping tests. Because of their
depth and the usually longer pumping period these installations are more likely
to cause settlement of nearby structures, and the use of recharge methods may
have to be considered.

7. Eductor system
This system also known as the jet eductor system or ejector system or
eductor wellpoint system is similar to the wellpoint system. Instead of
employing a vacuum to draw water to the wellpoints, the eductor system uses
high pressure water and riser units, each about 30-40 mm in diameter. A high
pressure supply main feeds water through a venturi tube immediately above the
perforated well screen, creating a reduction in pressure which draws water
through the large diameter rise pipe. The high pressure main feeds off the
return water. The advantage of the eductor system is that in operating many
wellpoints from a single pump station, the water table can be lowered in one
stage from depths of 10-45 m. This method becomes economically competitive
at depth in soils of low permeability.

8. Drainage galleries. Removal of large quantities of water for dam abutments,

cut-offs, landslides etc. Large quantities of water can be drained into gallery
(small diameter tunnel) and disposed of by conventional large scale pumps.

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9. Electro-osmosis. Used in low permeability soils (silts, silty clays, some peats)
when no other method is suitable. Direct current electricity is applied from
anodes (steel rods) to cathodes (well-points, i.e. small diameter filter wells)

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