Technique of grouting in silty-fine sand with abundant water: Practice in Beijing

In NATM tunnels, water inrush and tunnel collapse are often encountered in silty-fine sand with abundant water during excavation. Because of the special engineering properties of this stratum, grouting effect is difficult to achieve as expected, and it is a major problem in the field of civil engineering. Taking Beijing Metro Line 10 as a case, we applied PFC3D to simulate the process of grouting in this stratum. By analyzing the law of grout diffusing and porosity change under different grouting pressures, the study found that grouting was a process of splitting, and grouting pressure played an important role. The numerical results were verified by theoretical calculation analysis, and the grouting parameters were determined under the various grouting pressures for practice. After the excavation of this tunnel, the concretions in silty-fine sand are similar to the results of PFC3D simulation, which indicates that the grouting mechanism is confirmed by field observation further.