Rock Mechanics and Power Plants, Romana (eci.

)
e 1988Balkema, Rotterdam.ISBN9061918278

Design of high pressure concrete plugs for hydropower projects

Jan Bergh-Christensen
E.Str¢mme A/S, Norway

ABSTRACT: New design concepts, including the application of high pressure

epoxy grouting techniques has been successfully employed for the construction
of concrete plugs for water pressures up to 965 metres at Norwegian hydropower
projects.

In addition to hydropower plants, the developed technology may also be adapted

to other projects with extreme demands for effective fluid or gas containment
such as rock storages for natural gas (LNG) and radioactive waste repesitories.

INTRODUCTION rock in the plug area, use of specially

In Norway more than 80 unlined pressure
shafts and pressure tunnels are presently
in operation, with water pressures ranging
from 150 m up to 965 m.
Critical construction elements at these
plants are the plugs linking the unlined
conduit to the steel penstock, and access
port plugs for inspection of the tunnel
system.
Traditionally, such plugs were often
constructed with a plug length equal to
3-5% of the water pressure, and with
cement grouting for sealing. Leaks
primarily occured at the concrete-rock
interface, and often it was necessary to
perform several rounds of post grouting to
bring the leakages down to an acceptable
level.
During the last 10 years, the Norwegian
hydropower industry has pushed the limit
in water head on unlined rock from 500 m
up to the present world record of 965 m
static head in an unlined pressure shaft.
This has called for new design and con-
struction concepts for concrete plugs to
ensure safe operation and watertightness
at these extreme pressures.
It involves systematic high-pressure
leakage testing and pregrouting of the
developed grouting hoses for high-pressure
epoxy contact grouting of the plug, and
high-pressure post grouting through drill-
holes for verification of plug integrity.
Detailed planning and systematic quality
control routines through all phases of the
concreting and grouting operations are
vital for the successful completion of a
high-pressure plug.
The author has recently been responsible
for design and construction control for
this new type of high-pressure plugs at
Eikelandsosen power plant (450 m head) and
Nyset-Steggje power project (965 m head on
unlined rock), and is presently designing
a plug for 740 m head at Mel power plant
in Western Norway.
Some main experiences from these projects
are summarized below.
PLUG TYPES
The two main types of concrete plugs used
in hydropower projects are illustrated in
Fig. 1.
The penstock plug is located at the up-
stream end of the steel penstock, at the
transition to the unlined headrace or
pressure tunnel.

261
 CONCRETE PLUG WATER
STEEL PRESSURE
PENSTOCK
1000 M
NYSET -STEGGJEO

900 M
o TJODAN
PENSTOCK PLUG
800 M

~ MEL

700 M ~SILDVIK
~~~ E
.// ~~
I UNLINED <-...- L..-

vJ PRESSURE 600 M ~LOMI

J TUNNEL LANG-
SIMA
1 500 M
A------6 SI1lRFJORD o
6 EIKELANDS-
ACCESS GATE PLUG OSEN
MAUR- 0
ANGER
400 M
Fig. 1 General layout of penstock plug .• 6MESNA
and access gate plug oHOVE
300 M ~ SY-SIMA

Access to the unlined tunnel system is 200 M ~ ASKARA o ASKARA

usually provided by an access gate plug
located in the construction tunnel adja- 10 M 20 M 30 M 40 M 50 M
cent to the pressure tunnel.
PLUG LENGTH
PLUG LENGTHS
LEGEND:
Fig. 2 illustrates the relation between
o PENSTOCK PLUG

plug length and water pressure at a number

of Norwegian hydropower projects. As can
be seen, plug lenths vary from 2,5% up to
L
~ACCESS PLUG
TOT AL PLUG LENGTH
LENGTH OF STEEL LINING
11% of the water pressure, with recent
high-pressure design in the range of 3-5%.
Fig. 2 Plug length versus water pressure
The design of a high-pressure plug in- at some Norwegian hydropower
volves both structural, hydraulic and rock plants
mechanic considerations, combined with
practical experience concerning concreting
and grouting technology.

Fig. 3 shows a profile of the project,

NYSET-STEGGJE HYDROPOWER PROJECT which includes a 12 km tunnel leading
water from the northern cachment areas
Project layout into the main reserveir at elevatio~ 980.3
metre, an then a 5.6 km long 16 m head-
The Nyset-Steggje Hydropower Project race tunnel leading to the top of the
recently put in operation in Sogn, Western pressure shaft.
Norway, includes a 1300 metre long unlined
pressure shaft. With a static head of 965 The shaft, with a length of 1300 metres
metres, the shaft implies a new world and a diameter of 3,2 metres, has been
record in water pressure on unlined rock. excavated by full face Tunnel Boring

262

..•.
 RlSKALL VA TN
BnOALS-
••• .11
RES£RVOIl VATN

TllAIISF£R TUMIlEl
••

Fig. 3 Nyset-Steggje Project. Profile of the tunnel system

SANDTRAP
PENSTOCK

25 50m
5'01. POWER
STATION

ACCESS
TUNNEL
Fig. 4 Nyset-Steggje Project. Power station layout

Machine (TBM). From the power station
situated in rock, a 2.5 km long tailrace
tunnel leads out into the Ardal fjord.
£pncrete plug for the penstock
created in this area has in some cases
caused deformations and serious leakage
problems. At the Nyset-Steggje project,
special care has been taken in the design
and construction to minimize the risk of
such problems.

Layout of the power station area is shown
in Fig. 4.
From the unlined sandtrap at the foot of
the pressure shaft, a 140 metre long 1.6
metre diameter steel penstock leads down
to the power station. The first 45 metres
of the penstock downstream of the sandtrap
is fully concreted to form a massive
concrete plug. Access to the sandtrap is
Possible through a dismountable section of
the penstock downstream of this plug.
Experience has shown that the most criti-
cal part of an unlined pressure shaft is
at the transition from unlined to steel
lined section, i.e. in the plug area. The
extremely high pore pressure gradients
Rock conditions in the sandtrap and plug
area are favorable, with a good quality,
sparsely jointed gneiss.
The concrete plug, including the conical
intake section - has a total length of 55
metres, and was concreted in 6 sections,
as indicated in fig. 5.
Prior to concreting of the plug, four fans
of pregrouting holes (marked A-D on fig.
5) were drilled and pressure tested at 100
Bar at the upstream section of the penstock.
No leakages were detected, and the holes
were grouted with expanding cement grout.
Contact grouting of the concrete plug was
performed with epoxy grout at a pressure

263
 A B GROUT CURTAINS:
A -D PREGROUTING
E - H CONTROL HOLES
SANDTRAP
C 0
E F G H

E F G H
C 0

a, 10, 20m
I
A B Scale

Fig. 5 Nyset-Steggje Project

Layout of concrete plug and grout curtains

of 100 Bar. For this purpose, a special
type of grouting hoses were mounted before
and during concreting of the plug at the
interfaces rock/concrete, concrete/ steel
and at the interfaces between the plug
sections.
Polyurethane injected through embedded
hoses at the upstream and downstream end
of the plug were used to establish barries
at these sections to prevent grout escape,
and then the whole plug was contact
grouted with epoxy at high pressure in one
operation.
As a final check four fans of control
holes (denoted E-H on fig. 5) were drilled
from inside the penstock through the
concrete and 6 metres into rock. The
control holes were epoxy grouted at a
pressure of 100 Bar.
Steggj e power plant was waterfilled for
the first time during January 1987. The
filling was performed during a period of
10 days, with stops at different pressure
levels to monitor leakage quantities.
At full pressure of 965 metres head, total
water loss from the 1300 metres long shaft
into the surrounding rock was of the order
of 1,3 litres/second, whereas the recorded
total leakage through the concrete plug
was less than 1 litre/second. Considering
the pressure, these leakages are surpris-
ingly low, and without any significance
for the safe operation of the power plant.
During the subsequent months, the leakage
through the plug has diminished to close
to zero. This is probably due to the
clogging effect of redistributed excess
carbonate from the concrete.

Total grout consumption for the plug

injection was: EIKELANDSOSEN POWER PLANT

Epoxy 4273 kilogrammes The Eikelandsosen power plant utilizes a

Polyurethane 115 kd.Log ramme s 500 metre head from the Botnavatnet lake
down to the Eikelandsosen fjord in Western
In addition, approximately 3000 kilo- Norway.
grammes of cement was consumed for grout-
ing of the plug sections after concreting From the intake, a 3,6 km long 20 m2
and before epoxy injection. unlined pressure tunnel leads down to the
sandtrap chamber at elevation 50 m immed-
iate upstream of the power plant.
Water filling of the pressure shaft
From the sandtrap, a steel lined pressure
The unlined pressure shaft at Nyset- shaft connects to the machine hall cavern.

264
 UNLINED PRESSURE TUNNEL
S EEL LINED PENSTOCK

~ __ --" ~-c--~
----'
e-r-r- ~ r-- -r-- .--.....:
~

POWER STATIO

ACCESS GATE PLUG

o 10 20m
I ! I

Fig. 6 Eikelandsosen Power Plant

Layout of the gate plug and sandtrap area

~ PREGROUTI NG HOLE FANS

I I I
I I I
I I I
I I I
SAND I I 1
TRAP II I 1

I I STEEL I
I SECTION I
10m
I- -I I
5,ale I
I-
CONCRETE PLUG .1
Fig. 7 Eikelandsosen Power Plant
Plan of the access gate plug

Access to the sa~trsp is through a gate testing at 50 Bar of the rock in the plug
plug in the 20 m transport tunnel used area through fans of 20 m deep drillholes,
for excavation of the pressure tunnel as indicated in Fig. 7.
system. Fig. 6 illustrates the layout of
the plug and sandtrap area. Only minor leakages were detected. These
were treated with cement grouting at
50 Bar.
Plug construction
The concrete plug was concreted in three
As shown in Fig. 7, the plug consists of a sections. After each round, cement
20 m long concrete lining with sSm long grouting was performed at the crown to
steel section accomodating the access fill up any voids at the concrete/rock
gate. The first stage of the construction interface.
work comprised systematic permeability

265
 STEEL PENSTOCK

o 10 20m
!

ACCESS GATE PLUG

Fig. 8 Mel Power Plant

Plan of the sandtrap chamber and access gate plug

Special grouting hoses were mounted prior Plug function

to concreting at the interfaces rock/con-
crete, concrete/steel and at the inter- The tunnel system at Eikelandsosen power
faces of the plug sections. plant was pressurized in July 1986.

After cooling of the concrete down to The access gate plug showed only insigni-
0
16 C, these hoses were used to perform ficant leakage. less than 0.1 l/sec. Most
first an upstream and downstream sealing of the leakage came through a grouting
with polyurethane, and then a complete pipe immediately downstream of the steel
contact grouting of the concrete plug with section. After sealing of this pipe. no
epoxy at a grouting pressure of 50 Bar. leakage can be detected.

At the steel section, contact grouting of

the steel/concrete interface was also MEL HYDROPOWER PROJECT
performed with epoxy, but the grouting
pressure was here limited to 10 Bar to The Mel hydropower project is located
avoid deformations of the steel lining. close to the Sognefjord in Western Norway.
The general layout of the power plant is
After completion of the contact grouting, similar to that of Eikelandsosen, with an
fans of grouting holes were drilled unlined pressure tunnel with max. 740 m
through the concrete lining and 3 minto head leading down to a sandtrap chamber
rock throughout the plug section upstream upstream of the power station.
of the access gate. These holes were then
grouted with epoxy at a pressure of 50 Bar. Access to the tunnel system will be
through an access gate plug located in the
The purpose of this was to secure full 20 m2 construction tunnel leading into the
treatment of the rock adjacent to the sandtrap chamber. The gate plug will have
tunnel circumference and at the same time a total length of 27 m , and is designed
obtain a prestressing of the concrete for a water pressure of 740 m. Layout of
lining. the plug and sandtrap area is shown in
Total grout consumption for the plug Fig. 8.
treatment at Eikelandsosen was:
The 27 m long concrete plug will contain a
Epoxy 1070 kilogrammes central 1,6 m diameter steel lined access
Polyurethane 85 kilogrammes gallery throughout its length, with the
Cement 600 kilogrammes. access gate mounted at the upstream end of
the plug, as shown in Fig. 9.

266
 LONGITUDINAL SECTION CROSS SECTION

Fig. 9 Mel Power Plant

Access gate plug

The main construction stages for the plug for water pressure close to 1000 m head.
will be: We are confident that the technology can
be applied at even higher pressures.
Permeability testing, and then pre-
grouting of the rock in the plug area However, the design principles and grout-
with epoxy grout at 80 Bar. ing technology involved will be of benefit
also for plugs at lower water pressures.
Installation of the access steel It will ensure an efficient and complete
liner. sealing treatment of the plug, thus
avoiding the costly, time consuming and
Concreting of the plug in three sometimes ineffective remedial grouting
consecutive sections, with supplement- works often experienced with traditional
ary cement grouting of the crown area, plug constructions.
and installation of grouting hoses for
contact grouting. Key elements for the successful applica-
tion of this new technology are:
Contact grouting of the plug with
epoxy at 80 Bar. close cooperation between designer and
contractor
Drilling of 3 fans of control holes
from inside the steel lined access first class craftmanship in concreting
gallery. The holes are drilled and grouting operations
through the concrete into rock, and
grouted with epoxy at a pressure of 80 professional proj ect coordination and
Bar. strict quality control during all
stages of the design, construction and
The access plug at Mel power plant will be commissioning of the plug.
completed and put in operation during the
fall of 1988. Pressure gages will be In addition to hydropower plants, the
installed in the plug and the adjoining developed technology may also be adapted
rock to closely monitor loads and pore to other projects with extreme demands for
pressure build up during the first water effective fluid or gas containment such as
filling of the tunnel system. rock storages for natural gas and radio-
active waste repositories.

CONCLUSION Further research and development on

high-pressure plug design is presently
Recent innovations in plug design and undertaken in Norway as part of a major
grouting technology has made it possible research programme on natural gas storage
to successfully construct concrete plugs in rock caverns.

267
REFERENCES

0. Myseth and R. Lien, 1985:

High Pressure Tunnel Systems at Sima Power
Plant. Norwegian Hydropower Tunnelling.
Norwegian Soil and Rock Engineering
Association, Publication No.3, Tapir
Publishers, Trondheim.

Bergh-Christensen, J. and Dahl, B., 1987:

Grouting of Concrete Plugs to Withstand
High Water Pressures (Tetting av betong-
propper mot h~yt vanntrykk). Proceedings,
Norwegian Society of Chartered Engineers,
Course No. 74408 Grouting of Rock Masses,
6-8. April 1987. N.I.F. p.p. 11.1-11.18.

Bergh-Christensen, J., 1987:

Design of a 965 metre Head Unlined Pres-
sure Shaft at Nyset-Steggje Power Project,
Norway. Proceedings, Int. Conf. Hydro-
power '87, Oslo, Norway. June 22-25 1987.
Tapir Publishers. p.p. 321-332.

Bergh-Christensen, J., 1987:

Filling of Unlined Pressure Shaft at
Nyset-Steggje Power Plant (Fylling av
uforet trykksjakt ved Nyset-Steggje
kraftverk). Proceedings, Norsk jord- og
fjellteknisk forbund, Oslo 1987. Tapir.
p.p. 35.1-35.15.

268