DREDGING
EQUIPMENTS
SHIPBUILDING TECHNOLOGY (NAM 364)
Admiral Dr/ Mostafa Alafandy
Eng/ Ahmed M. Balata
by
Omar Hisham Mohammed
ID : 20011032
Osama Ibrahim
ID : 19015401
03/24
Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................... 3
Dredging Process ...................................................................................................................................... 3
It involves excavating naturally deposited sediments or artificial debris such as rocks, bottom sediments,
construction debris, refuse, and plant or animal matter on the bottom of shallow seawater or freshwater... 3
Dredging Start ........................................................................................................................................... 4
Importance of the Dredging Process ......................................................................................................... 5
Various Dredging Methods ....................................................................................................................... 6
The common types of dredging methods : .................................................................................................... 7
Mechanical Dredging ................................................................................................................................ 7
Hydraulic Dredging .............................................................................................................................. 8
Different types of dredging ships .............................................................................................................. 9
Types of Mechanical Dredgers ............................................................................................................... 10
The main types of Hydraulic Dredges include........................................................................................ 10
Few other types of dredger ships ............................................................................................................ 11
Sand Losses During Hopper Loading Process ............................................................................................ 11
TYPES OF SEDIMENTATION ............................................................................................................. 12
Discrete ............................................................................................................................................... 12
Flocculant............................................................................................................................................ 12
Zone .................................................................................................................................................... 12
Compression ....................................................................................................................................... 12
Introduction
Dredging removes the deposits percolated underwater to clear the water pathway for
ships to pass, creates adequate space to construct important bridges, dykes and dams
and weeds out silt, intoxicants and pollutants from the bottom of the water.
Once the hoppers are full, the process is halted for a while, and the ship travels to the
water disposal site, where the unwanted sediments are released through the bottom of
the ship.
Dredging Process
It involves excavating naturally deposited sediments or artificial debris such as rocks, bottom
sediments, construction debris, refuse, and plant or animal matter on the bottom of shallow
seawater or freshwater.
The dredge operator lowers it to the side of the body of water or its bottom. The rotating cutter
bar uses its sharp blades to loosen the sediment on the bottom, and it is sucked in using a
submersible pump. Ultimately, disposal barges or dump scows empty the material at the disposal
area.
The process is a blended essence of the following three independent elements:
excavation, transportation of excavated material and then usage or proper disposal of
dredged material
Dredging Start
With the beginning of civilization, commodities were transported by inland
waterways and oceans. But this transportation depended on the ability of ships, which
in turn largely depended on the water depth.
Silting, the natural phenomenon of deposition of silt and sediments over the sea bed,
created a constant threat to the voyages of ships.
People started fighting the problem of siltation to ensure the safety of voyages. Still,
due to a lack of equipment for removing siltation, they started manually digging the
mud by hand, which was inefficient and limited to shallow waterways.
In the 15th century, increased trade at seas necessitated the development of some bed
scratchers such as “Zeeuwse Krabbelaar”, a primitive bed leveller. These bed levellers
cum scratchers were used to pick the sediments and dispose of them. These dredgers
developed from ancient mills to modern suction dredgers.
Mills was developed around 1575. These were a sort of dredging equipment used for
digging in ports. Mills had a rotating chain connected with wooden boards, and these
wooden boards dug up the mud.
At the primary stage of the development of mills, they were manually driven later.
Steam engines powered them. Mills had gone obsolete in 1857 with the development
of a suction dredger in the United States.
In 1867, a revolutionary development came with the evolution of the design of a
suction dredger by a French engineer. He successfully used this suction dredger
in dredging the Suez Canal. From then on, dredging by suction became more and
more common.
Then came cutter suction dredgers and trailing suction hopper dredgers in the
19th century. These are modern dredgers and can avail efficient dredging. These were
so efficient that they allowed shipping and dredging simultaneously without hindering
the traffic.
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Recent dredging evolutions have optimised the dredging process as its primary focus
rather than developing new dredgers. So, standardizations of dredgers and equipment
and advancements in control and monitoring systems improved dredging greatly.
Importance of the Dredging Process
Dredging is an activity of enormous importance in the maritime industry. It serves the
following purposes:
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It helps safer voyages by pacifying underwater traffic and maintaining proper
bottom clearance.
Dredging increases the depth of navigation channels, ports and berths, allowing
for the free flow of maritime traffic.
Sometimes, dredging is employed to extract ocean gems such as shellfish and
molluscs. So, dredging can help in exploring excellent varieties of these sea
creatures.
Dredging is a primary requirement to channel the construction of a network of
bridges, dams, or other civil engineering works in water. These are only proper
dredging tools that remove the requisite amount of underwater silt and different
compositions and make the excellent constructions accurate that a civil
engineer wonders.
Dredging is also essential to make the marine ecosystem pollution-free. It helps
in the eco-friendly disposal of deposited polluting toxicants and harmful
materials without causing any harm to the marine ecosystem.
Dredging helps preserve flora and fauna in water bodies and is also used for
recreational activities.
Various Dredging Methods
The dredging process combines digging the soil in the water bed and removing or
extracting that soil from the excavated surface by creating a vacuum or plain suction.
Technologies assist modern dredges; however, the basic excavation methods of
dredges have remained the same since the late 1800s. Depending on how the debris is
extracted from the site, there are three main types of dredges.
The common types of dredging methods :
Mechanical Dredging
Mechanical dredging is the process in which the sediments are picked up using
mechanical tools such as buckets and grabs mounted on a large barge and placed in a
waiting barge until the solids settle down. Dipper Dredges and clamshell dredges,
named after the scooping buckets they use, are the most common types of mechanical
dredges that can work in tightly confined areas.
Mechanical dredging is usually carried out near the shoreline. Hence, mechanical
dredging is used to remove sediment on land or shorelines.
The dredged sediment is picked up and placed on nearby land or in water or, most of
the time, in another barge dedicated to carrying the sediment. If the dredging is done
near the shoreline, the sediment can be directly transferred to a truck or railway
wagon.
The mechanical dredging operation can be done using a barge or operated from shore.
If the mechanical dredger is onshore, it has a limitation of covering the area as it can
only be used near the shoreline. Barge-type mechanical dredgers can be operated in
any water; however, it will be most effective near docks, piers, etc.
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Mechanical dredging can be a continuous process. However, the quantity of the
sediment will be limited to one scoop, which is lifted every time to remove the
residue. The mechanical type can dredge hard compacted sediments, and water
carryover is way less than hydraulic dredging.
Hydraulic Dredging
In the hydraulic dredging process, centrifugal pumps remove the sediment from the
dredged site. Material from the channel bottom is sucked into the pipe.
The sediment is mixed with water and made into a slurry mixture, making it easier for
the pump to transfer. Depending on the pumping distance, a booster pump can be
fitted inline to transfer the sediment to the nearest shore through larger ships to
maintain a constant production rate.
One of the significant advantages of the hydraulic dredging process is the elimination
of other transport mediums or equipment, as the sediments can be directly transported
to the shore facility, saving additional expenditure and time.
The advantages of hydraulic dredging are:
Reduces capital costs
Reduces use of equipment and transportation
Reduces energy and emissions compared to the mechanical dredging process
Safe and efficient
Hydrodynamic Dredging
Hydrodynamic dredging is generally used to maintain the channel, port, harbour
depths, etc. If a new site needs to be freshly dredged, this method won’t prove
valuable and efficient. Once the area is dredged, it must be constantly maintained to
avoid unsafe navigation by retaining the required depths.
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This method utilizes water injection technology, which injects large amounts of water
using nozzles attached to a horizontal jet bar powered by pressurized pumps. As the
water spray from the nozzle hits the water bed, it fluidizes the sediments, making
them loose. This loose sediment near the channel bed flows down to the deeper areas
due to natural current.
As the natural flow helps sediment transport, this method is cost-effective and much
more environmentally friendly than the other two.
Different types of dredging ships
As per the classification of the dredger, they can be further classified into different
types:
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Types of Mechanical Dredgers
These are fixed in place using anchor piling, known as spuds.
Bucket Dredger: The bucket dredger is usually a fixed-type stationary dredger that
rotates in an arc by winches around the dredging site. The scrapping end is fitted with
a bucket, which removes the sediment or bottom material, and when turned upside
down, the sediments are unloaded on a barge.
Grab Type Dredger: This is a stationary dredger with a grab as a dredging tool (Two
equivalent scoops or shells operated hydraulically). Due to its design, It is also known
as a clamshell dredger. There can be different designs of the grab, which can be used
for deepwater dressing.
Backhoe Dredger: Also known as fixed arm dredger, it is a stationary type dredger
usually mounted on a barge or works near the banks. The dredging equipment is a
half-open shell with a fixed-length hydraulic arm used in shallow waters and near
harbour sites.
The main types of Hydraulic Dredges include
Suction Dredger: It is a stationary dredger generally used for mining sand. It is also
the best equipment for removing sludge from wastewater treatment plants or where
heavy-duty sediment removal is required. The suction pipe of this dredger is inserted
into the sand deposit, and water jets are used to bring the sand up from the excavation
site. The sediment can be pumped by sucking the sediments into the pipeline and
transferring it to the reclamation site or loaded into barges, depending upon the
location and available transfer arrangement.
Cutterhead Suction Dredger: It is another stationary dredger with a cutter head on
the suction end to loosen the base to be dredged. Like the plain-suction dredge, the
sediments are sucked and pumped via a discharge pipeline ashore or into barges. The
cutter head can be of different designs and materials, depending upon the properties of
the surface to be dredged. It aids in removing sediment from hard surfaces.
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Auger suction dredge operates on the same principles as a cutter-suction dredge,
except that the mechanical cutting tool is a rotating Archimedean screw placed at right
angles to the suction pipe.
Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger: This is a self-propelled ship carrying the dredger
equipment having a hold or hopper arrangement to fill it with excavated material
while following a pre-set dredging operation. This type of dredger can open the
bottom of the hold to unload the dredged material into the designated site. This
dredger is mainly used in open water such as canals, rivers, estuaries, etc.
Reclamation Dredger: This assists equipment in the dredging operation, not the
dredger itself. It is used to empty the hopper barge sediments using a suction pipe,
which can be lowered into the hopper barge hold. Additional water can be sprayed to
make the sediment slurry for easier suction and transfer to the dedicated site or shore
depot.
As explained earlier, hydrodynamic dredgers have only one type: Water Injection
dredgers.
Few other types of dredger ships
Amphibious dredgers: These ships have the unique constructional feature of
working out of the water surface using long legs as their base. They can be equipped
with grabs, buckets or a shovel installation.
Air-lift dredgers: This dredger uses high-pressure air jets instead of water jets for
material flow at the mouth of the suction pipe.
Bed leveller: This type is used to level the bed surface, which has recently been
dredged. It consists of a long flat blade or heavy bar connected to a tugboat at the end,
and when it is pulled, it will level the surface on the dredged surface over short
distances.
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A hopper dredge is a ship that sucks up the sediment slurry and holds that slurry in the
ship (hopper) until it gets to its destination. A pipeline dredge sucks up the sediment
slurry and pumps it through a pipeline directly to its destination.
Sand Losses During Hopper Loading Process
The production control instruments installed on board when dredging with trailing suction
hopper dredgers accurately determine exactly when to stop the hopper loading process and when
to begin the transport and dumping phase, so that optimum production is maintained for the
equipment throughout the entire process (loading-transport-dumping).
However, in the study and bidding phases of a project, dredging companies need a method for
making a theoretical calculation of the dredging process and especially for the hopper dredger
loading. The hopper loading process is very similar to the process that takes place in the
sedimentation tanks of a water treatment plant.
The object of this article is to establish a procedure for calculating the theoretical trailing suction
hopper dredgers production based on classical sedimentation theories and on the tests and actual
results in sedimentation tanks.
TYPES OF SEDIMENTATION
Discrete
This concerns the sedimentation of particles in a suspension with a low concentration of solids.
Although the movement of each particle is affected by the other particles around it, there is no
grouping and each particle settles individually.
Flocculant
This type of sedimentation occurs in rather dilute suspensions where the particles group together
or flocculate, increasing their mass and settling at a faster rate.
Zone
This refers to suspensions with an intermediate concentration in which the interparticle forces are
sufficient to hamper the settling of neighbouring particles so that they tend to stay in relatively
fixed positions and the mass settles as a unit.
Compression
In this type of sedimentation the particles are concentrated, forming a structure. Settlement is
caused by the pressure of the upper layers on the lower layers as new particles constantly join the
structure.
More than one form of sedimentation usually occurs in the sedimentation process depending on
the nature of the suspended material. It is even possible for all four types of sedimentation to take
place simultaneously. Although the analysis of each type of sedimentation is fundamental when
designing the equipment for a water treatment plant, only discrete sedimentation has to be
considered for the process of loading suspended granular material dredged by a trailing suction
hopper dredger.