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Ground Freezing

Ground freezing is a technique used in tunnel construction to stabilize soil and control groundwater. It involves drilling pipes and circulating coolants like liquid nitrogen or brine to extract heat from the soil and form an ice wall. This modifies the soil properties to allow excavation beneath the water table. It was used for a 40m section under an existing subway station in Rome, employing liquid nitrogen initially and then a closed brine system to monitor the ice wall formation and limit deformations. Ground freezing provides a safe way to construct tunnels in urban environments by protecting both workers and existing structures.

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Dangol Rupesh
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194 views

Ground Freezing

Ground freezing is a technique used in tunnel construction to stabilize soil and control groundwater. It involves drilling pipes and circulating coolants like liquid nitrogen or brine to extract heat from the soil and form an ice wall. This modifies the soil properties to allow excavation beneath the water table. It was used for a 40m section under an existing subway station in Rome, employing liquid nitrogen initially and then a closed brine system to monitor the ice wall formation and limit deformations. Ground freezing provides a safe way to construct tunnels in urban environments by protecting both workers and existing structures.

Uploaded by

Dangol Rupesh
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© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Ground freezing is used to guarantee the stabilization and waterproofing of the terrain by

lowering the temperature of the water present in the soil. It is a non-impacting process; in other
(TRADITIONAL TUNNEL EXCAVATION USING GROUND FREEZING TECHNOLOGY,
2017)

Artificial ground freezing is a technique for waterproofing and/or stabilizing the ground at the
same time, and for the purpose of excavation loose earth beneath groundwater level. The method
consists of freezing the water within a volume of soil by circulating low-temperature liquid,
“nitrogen or brine,” which extracts the heat and dissipates it to the outside.

The freezing modifies the ground’s thermal properties – its resistance/permeability – thus
allowing workers to continue with the lining and consolidation operations. Once the “ice wall”
has formed, a provisional lining may be installed, composed of steel ribs and shotcrete, before
going on to the final sealing and the casting of the final lining.

In urban environments, ground freezing technology is the best solution, because it guarantees the
greatest level of safety possible both for those doing the work, and for the pre-existing
constructions on the surface.

In the case of Line C, this technique was used to construct the line tunnels under passing the
existing Line A San Giovanni station, with a length of about 40 m for each direction of road,
done entirely by traditional blind-hole excavation.

The project’s complexity required using a two-phase mixed freezing system.

Phase one employed liquid nitrogen freezing, in which the cooling liquid, at -196 °C, circulated
in an open circuit and, after passing inside the freeze pipes, was dispersed as gas into the
atmosphere. This made it possible to reduce performance times and to obtain a safer closure of
the ice wall.
The second phase went from the “open-cycle” liquid nitrogen system to the “closed-cycle”
system: the refrigerant, consisting of brine in this case, after its passage into the freeze pipes,
warms through heat exchange with the ground, and then returns to the brine refrigeration plant,
which cools it and sends it back into circulation.
We were thus able to monitor the development of the ice wall over time, thereby limiting
deformations. Everything was monitored closely: the percentage of oxygen underground,
existing structures, and ground temperatures, at all times protecting those working in the work
site, as well as citizens. The use of nitrogen is fundamental, since 78% of the atmosphere is
nitrogen; it is non-toxic, odorless, colorless, and non-inflammable. The white vapors originating
from the subsoil, visible at the San Giovanni work site and dispersed into the air, thus presented
no health risk. The experience of ground freezing applied in the Metro C working method will be
an important point of reference for other future applications of this technology in similar
contexts.

(TRADITIONAL TUNNEL EXCAVATION USING GROUND FREEZING TECHNOLOGY, 2017)

http://metrocspa.it/en/blog/traditional-tunnel-excavation-using-ground-freezing-technology/
http://metrocspa.it/en/blog/traditional-tunnel-excavation-using-ground-freezing-technology/
Artificial ground freezing technique

Artificial ground freezing is a construction technique that is used in the construction of shafts,
mines and tunnels to provide temporary earth support and groundwater control when other
conventional methods such as dewatering, shoring and grouting or soil mixing do are not
feasible. Ground freezing is also used to provide regional groundwater barriers around mining
operations for gold and other minerals, oil sands or oil shale’s. It is often referred to as ground
freezing, soil freezing, or freeze wall. The ground freezing process involves drilling and
installing a series of relatively closely spaced pipes and circulating a coolant through these pipes.
The refrigerated coolant extracts heat from the ground, converting the soil pore water to ice
resulting in an extremely strong, impermeable material. It is the most positive method of ground
improvement used in the underground construction and mining industries. (Ground freezing,
2018)

https://groundfreezing.com/ground-freezing-in-construction/

The freezing process uses an entirely closed system. There are no chemicals injected into the
ground. The coolants used can be environmentally friendly glycols, calcium chloride brine or
liquid nitrogen. These coolants are chilled with several different types of either above or below
ground electrically powered refrigeration plants. In the case of liquid nitrogen, the liquid is
delivered to the project site in tankers and vented to the atmosphere immediately after circulating
through the pipes. (Ground freezing, 2018)

Ground freezing for deep shaft excavation

Deep shafts are the most common application of ground freezing. The freeze pipes are drilled
and installed around the perimeter of the proposed shaft do the required depth. The circulation of
the coolant is initiated until a frozen zone ranging from 1 to ten meters is formed. The inside of
the shaft is then excavated and lined and the freezing system turned off. (Ground freezing, 2018)

Ground freezing in the tunneling industry

Ground freezing is used extensively in the tunneling industry. Tunnel applications use several
different approaches. The most common involves horizontally drilling the freeze pipes around
the tunnel perimeter very similar to the frozen shaft approach. This horizontal configuration is
used to tunnel beneath roads or railways or to construct safety cross passages between two
existing tunnels. Another method of constructing tunnels is to freeze the entire alignment solid
and mining through a frozen mass of soil. This approach is often coupled with the Sequential
Excavation Method (SEM) and used for small diameter tunnel adits. (Ground freezing, 2018)

Ground freezing and Tunnel Boring Machines

Ground freezing is also used in conjunction with Tunnel Boring Machines (TBMs). The ground
in front of or around the TBM can be frozen in advance to create a pre-planned safe haven for
tunneling interventions or used in emergencies for TBM repair. (Ground freezing, 2018)

Ground freezing to isolate groundwater from mining operations

Ground freezing has been proposed for regional groundwater barriers up to 10km long to isolate
groundwater from mining operations instead of large scale dewatering operations that have
environmental consequences or require complex and expensive treatment operations. (Ground
freezing, 2018)
Ground freezing success

Ground freezing is successful when completed by experienced contractors that have the required
specialized equipment. It is an interactive process requiring advanced engineering, accurate
drilling as well as custom made refrigeration and instrumentation equipment. (Ground freezing,
2018)

Works Cited

Ground freezing. (2018, June). Retrieved from groundfreezing.com:

https://groundfreezing.com/ground-freezing-in-construction/

TRADITIONAL TUNNEL EXCAVATION USING GROUND FREEZING TECHNOLOGY. (2017,

June 01). Retrieved June 05, 2018, from http://metrocspa.it:

http://metrocspa.it/en/blog/traditional-tunnel-excavation-using-ground-freezing-technology/

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