Unit II- DEWATERING

Part – A
1. Define dewatering?
Dewatering or construction dewatering are terms used to describe the action of removing
groundwater or surface water from a construction site. Normally dewatering process is done
by pumping or evaporation and is usually done before excavation for footings or to
lower water table that might be causing problems during excavations. Dewatering can also be
known as the process of removing water from soil by wet classification.
2. What is the need for drainage and dewatering?
To provide suitable working surface of the bottom of the excavation.
To stabilize the banks of the excavation thus avoiding the hazards of slides
and sloughing.
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.
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.

3. What are the various methods of dewatering?

Surface water control like ditches, training walls, embankments. Simple methods of
diverting surface water, open excavations. Simple pumping equipment.
Gravity drainage.Relatively impermeable soils. Open excavations especially on
sloping sites. Simple pumping equipment.
Sump pumping
Wellpoint systems with suction pumps.
Shallow (bored) wells with pumps.
Deep (bored) wells with pumps.
Eductor system
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.
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 )

4. How are sumps and ditches used in dewatering?

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.
5. What are the advantages of sumps and ditches in dewatering?
It is the most widely used and economical of all methods of ground water lowering.
This method is also more appropriate in situations where boulders or other massive
obstructions are met in the ground.
6. What is a well point system?
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.
7. What are the different types of well point systems?
single stage well point
multistage well point
well points in braced excavations
deep well drainage
8. When are deep wells used for dewatering? (AUC NOV /DEC 2012)

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.

9. What is the principle behind vacuum dewatering?

Gravity methods, such as well points and deep wells are not much effective in the fine-
grained soils with permeability in the range of 0.1 10 x 10 -3 mm/s.

Such soils can be dewatered satisfactorily by applying a vacuum to the piping system

10. What is electro-osmotic dewatering?

When an external electro motive force is applied across a soild liquid interface the movable
diffuse double layer is displaced tangentially with respect to the fixed layer . this is electro
osmosis. As the surface of fine grained soil particles causes negative charge, the positive
ions in solution are attracted towards the soil particles and concentrate near the surfaces

11. What are the various types of drains?

open drains
closed drains
horizontal drains
foundation drains
blanket drains
interceptor drains

12. Define permeability and seepage.

Permeability of soil its capacity to transmit a fluid to pass through its interconnected void
spaces . K = v/I

V= the discharge velocity

I = hydraulic gradient
Water flows through the voids in a soil which are interconnec te d . This flow may b e ca lle d
seepage, since the velocities are very small.

13. What are the requirements of drains should be satisfy. (AUC NOV /DEC 2010)
Sand drains consist of a column o f pervious sand placed in a cased hole, either driven or
drilled through the soil, with the casing subsequently removed. The ca-pacity of sand drains can be
significantly increased by installation of a slotted 1% or 2-inch pipe inside the sand drain to
conduct the water down to the more per-vious stratum.
 14. Define sensitive clay (AUC NOV /DEC 2010)
Clay whose shear strength is decreased to a fraction of its former value on remolding at
constant moisture content.
15. How the dewatering carried out for the construction of the bored tunnel .
(AUC MAY/JUNE 2013)
Groundwater Engineering provides complete dewatering solutions:
Design of dewatering systems
Well drilling and installation
Pumping tests
Equipment sales and rental
Monitoring systems
On-site operation and maintenance

16. What are the problems occurred to seepage of water (AUC MAY/JUNE 2012)
Common causes of water seepage :
1. Leakage in the drainage pipes of the upper, adjacent or your own flat.
2. Leakage in the water supply pipes of the upper, adjacent or your own flat.
3. Deteriorated waterproofing of floor slabs or bath-tub seals.
4. Seepage of waste water or rain water through roof / external wall

17. State the advantages and disadvantages of dewatering. (AUC NOV /DEC 2012)

ADVANTAGES
Reduces the amount of sediment leaving the site
Allows for a more in-depth site assessment additional necessary erosion control
measures may be identified
DISADVANTAGES
oMust abide by multiple government laws and standards and obtain appropriate
permits
oRequires frequent maintenance
oMay be costly
18. Define Cutoffs .
Cutoff curtains can be used to stop or minimize seepage into an excavation where the cutoff
can be installed down to an impervious formation. Such cutoffs can be constructed by driving
steel sheet piling, grouting existing soil with cement or chemical grout, excavating by means
of a slurry trench and backfilling with a plastic mix of betonies and ‘soil, i n-stalling a concrete
wall, possibly consisting of overlap-ping shafts, or freezing.
19. what are the types of drainage ?
Land Drainage : This is large scale drainage where the objective is to
drain surplus water from a large area by such means as excavating
large open drains, erecting dykes and levees and pumping. Such
schemes are necessary in low lying areas and are mainly Civil
Engineering work
ii) Field Drainage
This is the drainage that concerns us in agriculture. It is the
removal of excess water fromthe root zone of crops.
20. State electro osmotic consolidation
Due to the applied electric potential the electrolysis of water occurs at the

electrodes
2H2O -> O2 (g) + 4H+ +4e- oxidation (anode)
4H2O + 4e- -> 2H2 (g) + 4OH- reduction (cathode)
The clay particles have a †ve charge. These †ve ch arge produce an
electro static surface property known as the double layer which creates a
net abundance of cations