Drainage & Dewatering

5014 B
GROUND IMPROVEMENT
TECHNIQUES
MODULE 1:
DRAINGE & DEWATERING
METHODS
DRAINAGE OR DEWATERING
 Removal of excess water from saturated soil mass is

known as drainage or dewatering
 This process helps in increasing the stability of insitu

soil mass by reducing seepage and pore pressure
 Reduction in pore pressure in cohesionless soils

eventually increases the strength of soil
DRAINAGE OR DEWATERING
 Various civil engineering constructions often require

excavation of field soil below GWT
 eg: Excavating a basement for a building, or for laying
foundation of a dam or a bridge, while laying a sewer pipe line
etc.
 All such excavations do require lowering of GWT below the
bottom of the excavation to prevent sloughing of the sides and
to obtain dry working conditions in construction area
 Various methods employed to lower water table are as
follows:
 Pumping from sumps or ditches
 Pumping from a well point system
 Deep-well drainage
 Vacuum pumping
 Electro-osmosis drainage
1. Pumping From Sumps or Ditches
 Simplest method of dewatering; but can be used only

when shallow excavations are involved
 In this method, shallow pits called sumps or ditches
are excavated at the excavation site, below the
deepest level of excavation
 These ditches are dug along the periphery of the
excavation trench, so as to get ground water seeping
into them from the excavation trench by gravity
 Water from these sumps are continuously pumped
out
1. Pumping From Sumps or Ditches
 If chances of subsidence or fall of sides of trenches are there, sump

ditches may be filled with inverted filters to avoid removal of soil
from sumps
 Inverted filter (or weighted filter)- layers of coarser material from
bottom of pit to upwards
2. Pumping From Well Point System
 Several deep well points are installed in the excavation area, from
where continuous pumping is carried out
 Well point : Perforated well pipe, about 0.5 to 1m long and 5 to 8 cm

in diameter, which is connected to a riser pipe of suitable length
 Well point is covered by a cylindrical wire-gauge screen(

to facilitate entry of sand free water)
 A conical steel drive is attached to the lower end of this
perforated pipe screen
 This well point is inserted into the ground by jetting
(pumping water under pressure down the well point)
 The emerging jet stream dislodges surrounding soil,
enabling sinking of well point to the desired depth
 The riser pipes from various well points placed in a row
or ring pattern , are connected to a common header pipe,
which in turn is connected to a well point pump
 On working, pump sucks water from the connected well

points, and discharges it into nearby drain or pond through an
outlet hose
 Continuous working of pumps helps in keeping the
construction area dry
 50 to 60 well points (spaced at 1 -2 m) may be connected to a
single pump
 For excavating more than 6m below water table, a multi stage well point
system is used
 Here, first of all ground is excavated upto subsoil water level & first stage
well point is installed
 After excavating upto 5m, second stage well points is installed to further
lower water level for advancing depth of excavation
 Thus excavation is carried out for deeper depths
 Not suitable for >16m depth
3. Deep Well Drainage
 If depth of excavation is more (>10m or so) below water table,

this system is used
 Here deep wells are installed near and outside the
construction area
 Each deep well is pumped by using a submersible pump
having a capacity to lift water up 30m or more
 Bottom portion of the casing pipe of well is made in

the form of a long strainer
 The space between bore and casing may be filled
with gravel packing
 Bore diameter is kept about 30cm more than casing
diameter
 Deep wells may be placed at 10 to 100m intervals
 Along with deep well, a row of well points is also
installed along toe of side slopes of deep excavation
4.Vacuum dewatering
 For non-cohesive fine grained soils with very low

permeability, none of the above methods are effective
 Such soils are dewatered by vacuum dewatering
4.Vacuum dewatering
 Well points or deep wells are here provided with vacuum

inside the wells
 Hence a well of this system is not exposed to atmosphere
 All points are made air tight (completely closed well)
 The screen is surrounded with sand filter, extending upto
few meters of the surface
 Bentonite seal is provided at remaining portion of hole
 Creation of vacuum in well screen and sand filter causes
flow towards the well
5. Electro- Osmosis Drainage
 For fine grained cohesive soils, none of the above methods are suitable (due
to capillary forces acting on pore water)
 In such cases, this method is used
 A steel rod- as cathode,
 Well point – as anode
 It causes an accelerated flow from cathode towards anode( well point)
5. Electro- Osmosis Drainage
 This method thus requires passing of electric current

(DC) between anode and cathode & pumping of
water from well point
 Electrode spacing- 4 to 5m
 Potential between electrodes- 40 to 180 volts
 This method is very effective for dewatering fine
grained soil; but is very costly
 Hence not used for usual dewatering purposes
STONE COLUMNS
STONE COLUMNS
 The stone column technique, also known as vibro-

replacement or vibro-displacement, is a ground improvement
process where vertical columns of compacted aggregate are
formed through the soils to be improved.
 Stone columns, also known as granular piles, consist of stone
aggregates compacted into a vertical hole.
 Generally, the size of aggregate used is 20mm to 75mm and
the depth of hole is about 15m to 20m with the diameter of
0.6m to 1.0m.
 The compaction is achieved by a vibrating probe or by
ramming.

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5014 B

 Removal of excess water from saturated soil mass is

 This process helps in increasing the stability of insitu

 Reduction in pore pressure in cohesionless soils

 Various civil engineering constructions often require

 Simplest method of dewatering; but can be used only

 If chances of subsidence or fall of sides of trenches are there, sump

 Well point : Perforated well pipe, about 0.5 to 1m long and 5 to 8 cm

 Well point is covered by a cylindrical wire-gauge screen(

 On working, pump sucks water from the connected well

 If depth of excavation is more (>10m or so) below water table,

 Bottom portion of the casing pipe of well is made in

 For non-cohesive fine grained soils with very low

 Well points or deep wells are here provided with vacuum

 This method thus requires passing of electric current

 The stone column technique, also known as vibro-

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