Drainage & Dewatering

Lecture – 04 & 05

Md. Aliur Rahman

Lecturer
PME Dept, MIST
 INTRODUCTION

Dewatering means “the separation of water from the rock,” or perhaps “taking the
water out of a particular construction problem completely.” Usually, Mining
excavations are carried out below groundwater level.
Techniques for dealing with the problems that result depend on the excavation
dimensions, the rock type, permeability and the groundwater control requirements,
among other factors.
 dewatering

The main purpose of construction dewatering is to control the surface and

subsurface hydrologic environment in such a way as to permit the structure to be
constructed “in the dry.”
 PURPOSES FOR DEWATERING
During Construction Stage:
1) Provide a dry excavation and permit construction to proceed efficiently.
2) Prevent mine from flooding.
3) Stabilize “quick” bottom conditions and prevent heaving and piping.
4) Improve supporting characteristics of foundation materials.
5) Increase stability of excavation slopes so that subsidence is reduced.
6) Cut off capillary rise and prevent piping and frost heaving in pavements.
7) Reduce air pressure in tunneling operations.
 PURPOSES FOR DEWATERING
Post Construction Stage:
1) Reduce or eliminate uplift pressures on bottom slabs and permit
economics from the reduction of slab thicknesses fro basements,
buried structures, canal linings, spillways, dry docks, etc.
2) Provide for dry basements.
3) Reduce lateral pressures on retaining structures.
4) Control embankment seepage in all dams.
5) Control seepage and pore pressures beneath pavements, side-hill
fills, and cut slopes.
 PERMEABILITY OF ROCK
The ability of soil to allow the water to flow through it is called Permeability. Soils
have interconnected voids through which water can flow from points of high
energy to points of low energy.
It is necessary to estimate the quantity of underground seepage for investigating
problems involving the pumping of water for underground construction.
Range of permeability for various soils is shown in Table
 Mine dewatering

“Mine dewatering is the process of controlling and

managing surface water and groundwater to allow mining
in relatively dry conditions, to improve geotechnical
stability and to improve the efficiency of mining methods”.
 Benefits of Mine dewatering
Mine sites that implement a planned dewatering programme will
typically see benefits of mine dewatering, including:

(1) More efficient working conditions: better trafficking and

diggability, reduced downtime due to pit flooding.
(2) Reduced blasting costs: lowering groundwater levels in
advance of working will provide dry blast holes, reducing the need
for more costly emulsion explosives.
 Benefits of Mine dewatering

(3) Lower haulage costs: Dry ore and waste rock weigh less than
wet material, so dewatering of rock provides a haulage cost saving.
(4) Improved slope stability and safety: lowering of groundwater
levels and reduction in pore water pressures while maintaining and
increasing geotechnical factors of safety.
 METHODS OF DEWATERING
The Available Methods of Groundwater Control Fall into the Following Basic
Groups:
1. Surface water control like ditches, 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
4. Well-point systems with suction pumps.
5. Shallow (bored) wells with pumps.
Contd…

6. Deep (bored) wells with pumps.

7. 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.
8. 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)
 Factors of DEWATERING design

There are 3 aspects to the design and implementation of mine

dewatering
An understanding of:
 Hydrogeology
 Dewatering technology
 Environmental sensitivities
WATER MANAGEMENT FOR MINING
 Groundwater Control Techniques
There are two main approaches to groundwater control:

(A) Groundwater control by exclusion – Using physical cut-off

walls to exclude groundwater from the excavation
(B) Groundwater control by pumping – Using in pit pumping or
wells to lower groundwater levels
 Groundwater Control by Exclusion

Physical cut-off walls are

installed around a site to exclude
groundwater from shallow
alluvial or drift deposits, or to
seal off preferential flow along
permeable strata
Groundwater Control by Exclusion
 Several methods for Exclusion

1. Ground freezing (ammonium brine refrigeration or liquid nitrogen

refrigeration). All types of saturated soils.
2. Slurry trench cut-off walls with betonies or native clay and diaphragm
concrete walls. All soils.
3. Sheet piling. All soils except soils with large boulders.
4. Compressed air. All types of saturated soils and rock. Applications in
tunnels, shafts and caissons.
5. Grouted cut-offs (jet grouting, cementations grouts, rock grouts etc.)
 METHODS OF DEWATERING

## SUMPS AND 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.
 METHODS OF DEWATERING
## SUMPS AND SUMP PUMPING:
Shallow slopes may be required for
unsupported excavations in silts and
fine sands. Gravels and coarse sands
are more suitable.
Fines may be easily removed from
ground and soils containing large
percent of fines are not suitable (why?).
Subsidence of adjacent ground and
sloughing of the lower part of a slope
(sloped pits) may occur.
 METHODS OF DEWATERING
## SUMPS AND SUMP PUMPING:
The sump should be preferably lined with
a filter material which has grain size
gradations in compatible with the filter
rules.
For prolonged pumping, installing a cage
inside the sump made of wire mesh or a
perforating pipe filling the filter material in
the space outside the cage and at the
bottom of the cage.
 METHODS OF DEWATERING
Advantages of Open Sump and Ditches:
1. Widely used method.
2. Most economical method for installation
and maintenance.
3. Can be applied for most soil and rock
conditions.
4. Most appropriate method in situation where
boulders or massive obstructions are met
within the ground.
5. Greatest depth to which the water table can
be lowered by this method is about 8 m
below the pump.
Disadvantages of Open Sump and
Ditches:
1. Ground water flows towards the
excavation with high head or a steep
slope and hence there is a risk of
collapse of sides.
2. In open or timbered excavations there
is risk of instability of the base due to
upward.
 Open Pit dewatering stages
 Source control:
i. Intercept run-off before it enters the pit
ii. Use surface water drainage ditches and bunds around the perimeter of the pit
to prevent surface water entering the pit from the surrounding land
 Water collection:
i. Collector drains, ditches and sumps used to divert water away from working
areas
ii. Sumps to temporarily store storm water while it is pumped away
iii. In-pit pumping systems (keep it simple and robust!), sized to handle storm water
 Water treatment:
• Solids removal (settlement tank)
Open Pit dewatering system
Open Pit dewatering system
Open Pit dewatering system
Open Pit dewatering system
Open Pit dewatering system
Open Pit dewatering system
 Permeability in the Field by Pumping from Wells
When a well is pumped, the groundwater
surface in the surrounding area is lowered which
depends on
 The pumping rate,
 The size of the well,
 The permeability of the soil,
 The distance from the well.
In the field, the average hydraulic conductivity
of a soil deposit in the direction of flow can be
determined by performing pumping tests from
the well.
Figure shows a well in an open aquifer being
pumped at a pumping rate of q. Figure – Pumping in a well which is fully
penetrating an open aquifer
 Permeability in the Field by Pumping from Wells
Assume, permeability in the horizontal and
vertical directions is the same. The pumping rate
from a well in an open aquifers is,

where,
o q = Water flowing through the soil at a
constant rate
o k = the coefficient of permeability (Hydraulic
conductivity, a material’s constant)
o R1 and R2 = distances of observation wells
from the well where pumping is performed
o H1 and H2 = drawdowns in the observation Figure – Pumping in a well which is fully
penetrating an open aquifer
wells caused by pumping
 Permeability in the Field by Pumping from
Wells
Example:
Consider the case of pumping from a well in an unconfined permeable layer underlain
by an impermeable stratum. Given:
q = 26 ft3/min
H1 = 15.7 ft at R1 = 100 ft
H2 = 18.0 ft at R2 = 200 ft
Calculate the hydraulic conductivity (in ft/min) of the permeable layer.
 Example for the Constant Head Test

Example:
For a constant head laboratory permeability test on a fine sand, the following
values are given:
Length of specimen = 10 in., Diameter of specimen = 2.5 in., Head difference =
18 in., Water collected in 2 minutes = 0.031 in.

Determine:
a. Hydraulic conductivity, k, of the soil (in./min.)
b. Discharge velocity