Scaling and clogging treatment of aging tunnel drainage pipes in karst areas using eco-friendly acid agent

In karst areas,the drainage pipes of aging tunnels are prone to be clogged by precipitated carbonates,resulting in lining cracking and tunnel leaking.As a result,not only the driving safety will be deteriorated,but also the water pressure on the lining might also be elevated significantly.For the structural stability and service lifespan of old tunnels,it is of great importance to remove these precipitated carbonates in time.Traditional treatment methods are often destructive to some extent or not efficient enough.This study aims to experimentally develop an eco-friendly acid-based chemical cleaning method to remove carbonate precipitations efficiently.The proposed chemical cleaning agent is an aqueous solution with strong acidity,consisting of sulfamic acid,water,and additives.The factors affecting the cleaning efficiency include the acid solubility,temperature and flow rate of the cleaning agent,as well as additives.Elevating the solution temperature to 50
C or a flow rate of no less than 0.2 m/s can improve cleaning efficiency.Although the salt effect cannot work,1 wt%of polymaleic acid as a surfactant could further promote the cleaning rate.The cleaning efficiency will increase with the flow rate in a power function.The relatively low flow rate that improves the cleaning rate considerably can avoid highpressure-induced mechanical damage to tunnel drainpipes.The waste could be easily treated to acceptable levels using commercial sewage treatment products and can also be recycled in agriculture.With the chemical cleaning,the water pressure at the arch springing of the lining will reduce with the increased radius of transverse drainpipes in a power function.The proposed acid-based cleaning method,which is highly efficient,non-or low-destructive to aging tunnels,sufficiently safe for humans,and friendly enough to the environment,will offer a promising alternative to remove the precipitated carbonates in tunnel drainpipes efficiently.

Experimental Research on the Physical and Mechanical Properties of Concrete with Recycled Plastic Aggregates

In order to study the effect of recycled plastic particles on the physical and mechanical properties of concrete,recycled plastic concrete with 0,3%,5%and 7%content(by weight)was designed.The compressive strength,splitting tensile strength and the change of mass caused by water absorption during curing were measured.The results show that the strength of concrete is increased by adding recycled plastic into concrete.Among them,the compressive strength and the splitting tensile strength of concrete is the best when the plastic content is 5%.With the increase of plastic content,the development speed of early strength slows down.Silane coupling agent plays a positive role in the strength of recycled plastic concrete.The water absorption saturation of concrete has been basically completed in the early stage.The addition of silane coupling agent makes the porosity of concrete reduce and the water absorption of concrete become poor.By summing up the physical and mechanical properties of recycled plastic concrete,it could be found that the addition of recycled plastic was effective for the modification of concrete materials.Under the control of the amount of recycled plastic,the strength of concrete with recycled plastic aggregates can meet the engineering requirements.

Exploration of Waterproofness of Concrete and Alkali-Aggregate Using Hydrophobic Impregnation and Coating

Part of the tunnel spoil can not be used for concrete due to alkali aggregate reaction(AAR).Water is an indis-pensable condition for AAR,so separating the alkali-aggregate from water is of great benefit to controlling the AAR.This paper investigates the modification of concrete and aggregate by hydrophobic impregnation and organic coating and then evaluates their waterproof and me chanical properties by dynamic contact angle(DCA),ultrasonic wave velocity,scanning electron microscope(SEM),nuclear magnetic resonance(NMR),and so on.For waterproofness,hydrophobic impregnation and organic coating can both improve the waterproof-ness of concrete and aggregate.The organic coating is suitable for aggregate because it wrap aggregate well.And aggregate coated by PVA can improve the interfacial transition zone(ITZ).For mechanical properties,both mate-rials will weaken the strength of the interface.Furthermore,concrete made by aggregate with organic coating shows plastic deformation and has a good correlation with the film thickness,a plastic estimation model based on flm thickness is proposed.This paper evaluates the waterproof of concrete and aggregate and finds plastic con-crete with good aggregate waterproofness which provides a new idea for the application of alkali aggregate in see-page control facilities of water conservancy projects.