Predicting and controlling the cement intake during curtain grouting of dam foundations

Abstract

Cement intake is a key factor that must be precisely controlled during the curtain grouting construction process. However, in traditional grouting construction, the amount of cement intake depends on the personnel experience, and thus, it is desirable to formulate a scientific control criterion and control method. To this end, in this study, a method to predict and control the cement intake was developed. Based on the fractal theory, the relationship between the cement intake and transmissivity was established considering the fracture roughness, and a control criterion for the cement intake was established. Furthermore, a model to predict the cement intake, based on the mixed kernel function support vector machine optimized using the Lévy flight trajectory-based whale optimization algorithm was developed. Based on these aspects, the method to predict and control the cement intake was established, and a case study was performed to demonstrate the effectiveness and advantages of the proposed method. The proposed approach can overcome the limitations of the conventional practice, in which the quality control is often manual and subjective. Moreover, the approach can help realize grouting quality control in complex construction situations, providing a strong technical guarantee for lean construction and long-term safe operation of dam foundations.