Bleeding and Filtration of Cement-Based Grout

Sammanfattning: Grouting is a common method of sealing rock around tunnels to reduce or stop water inflow. Successful grouting significantly minimizes the maintenance cost and safety of the tunnel. Some questions about bleeding and penetrability of the grouts have to be examined more closely to carry out a successful grouting.Bleeding of cement-based grout is a complex problem. Measuring methods used today originate from the measuring of the bleeding of cement pastes used in ordinary building industry. Whether bleeding measured with a standard method is relevant for bleeding in small fractures in rocks is one of the main questions in this study. The aim of the study is to illustrate what really happens with a grout during bleeding and which factors and processes influence it. In this way relevant measuring methods can be developed as well as the knowledge regarding interpretation of the measured results. The study has shown the most important factors which governs bleeding in cement-based grout. It has also shown that the results measured with standard methods are not relevant for bleeding of grout in rock joints and that voids in the joints caused by bleeding could be refilled during grouting itself.An important aspect of grouting is penetration of the grout. The penetration is defined as the length of how far grout penetrates in the rock through fractures from a bore hole. Filtration of the grout is a result of a plug building at fracture constrictions which reduces the penetrability of the grout. This is the other important issue discussed in the study which examines the question whether this can be measured by some measuring method and which factors and processes influence penetrability and filtration. A hypothesis of how the factors w/c ratio, pressure and relative constriction influence penetrability are presented and tested by special constructed measuring equipment. The results obtained by this measuring equipment are compared with the results measured with a penetrability meter.