38
Geotechnical News • December 2019
THE GROUT LINE
Paolo Gazzarrini
54
th
episode of the Grout Line, after
a very busy year, with articles on and
off, but still alive!
For this issue some information about
our grouting industry and an article
about a very interesting application of
jet grouting and MPSP as a grout cur-
tain in a hydroelectric project in Bul-
garia (EU). This project was already
presented at the 44
th
DFI Annual
Conference and thanks to DFI for the
authorization to produce it here.
Grouting industry news:
The first news
is about the Grout-
ing Fundamentals & Current Practice
course. See below and stay tuned for
further information.
40
th
Annual Short Course & 1
st
European Edition
The 1
st
European edition of the inter-
nationally renowned
Grouting Fun-
damentals & Current Practice
short
course was held at the Bundeswehr
University in Munich (UniBw) from
September 16-19, 2019. This 4-day
professional training event was
organized by the Institute of Applied
Geosciences at the Graz University of
Technology together with the publish-
ing house Wiley-Ernst & Sohn, and in
cooperation with the Institute of Soil
Mechanics and Foundation Engineer-
ing at UniBw and the Bavarian Cham-
ber for Civil Engineering. With over
50 attendees representing 11 countries,
the inaugural European course was a
resounding success!
The
Grouting Fundamentals & Cur-
rent Practice
course was founded in
1979 in the USA, and since then has
provided unique professional training
and education to thousands of grouting
professionals worldwide. For over 20
years the course was directed by the
late Prof. Norbert Schmidt, and Prof.
Scott Kieffer has provided consistent
direction for the past 17 years. By
covering fundamental theory while
focusing on current state-of-the-
practice, the course fills a wide gap in
traditional university education. With
few exceptions globally, the subject of
grouting is simply absent from civil
engineering curricula. Furthermore,
while theory and calculations can be
conveyed in a traditional university
environment, they alone cannot com-
pensate for lack of practical grouting
experience. The agenda has thus been
tailored specifically for Owners, Regu-
lators, Consultants and Contractors
that are utilizing pressure grouting as a
means for geo-structural construction
and remediation.
The Munich course included a faculty
of 19 experts from 11 countries,
providing exceptional breadth and
expertise concerning fundamental
aspects of grouting and international
best practices. The attendees came
from as far as Australia and Mexico,
and represented a broad cross section
of the grouting industry, including
design firms, specialty geotechni-
cal contractors, hydropower facility
owners, equipment manufacturers and
material suppliers. Major course top-
ics included:
• grout rheology
• cementitious and chemical grouting
materials
• overburden and rock drilling
methods
• optimizing and verifying grouting
during construction
• permeation grouting
• compaction grouting
• compensation grouting
• deep soil mixing
• composite seepage barriers
• jet grouting
• GIN and RTGC in rock grouting
• amenability theory
• rock anchors and SBMA design
• micropiles
• grouting for tunnels
• concrete repair and rehabilitation
An integral part of this course is the
½ day Field Demonstration. Contrac-
tors, manufacturers and suppliers
converged on the UniBw campus to
provide an impressive array of hands-
on instruction concerning grouting
equipment, materials and procedures.
The Munich Field Demo included:
• Live exhibition of sonic drilling
and sampling technology (Ei-
jkelkamp SonicSampDrill)
• Ground anchor drilling and installa-
tion (Keller Grundbau GmbH)
• Live exhibition of anchor load test-
ing (DSI Underground)
• High capacity tube-a-manchette
(MPSP) grouting (Sireg Geotech
S.r.l.)
• Colloidal mixing and compact
grout plants (ChemGrout, Häny
AG, SPIBO, Mai International
GmbH)
• Hybrid polyurethane-cement and
acrylic-cement injection (Webac
Chemie GmbH, Züblin AG)
• Soil permeation grouting (UTT
Mapei AS)
• Chemical grouting for water cut-
offs and anchoring (DSI Un-
derground, TPH Waterproofing
Systems)
• Chemical grouting for concrete
repair and rehabilitation (Sika AG)
