CSD – Discover Dredging

Graduation Omar Karam: Rock Cutting The Egyptian Way

Egypt is a great nation when it comes to ancient engineering. No other country has such a concentration of impressive monuments and such an interesting history as over there. If you are not convinced that modern Egyptians are not capable of great engineering feats you are wrong. Last Monday, Omar Karam graduated at our R&D department of Damen Dredging Equipment1 on his thesis about ‘CSD Rock Cutting.’

Cutting processes have been extensively described by Sape Miedema in ‘The Delft Sand, Clay & Rock Cutting Model’2. Omar has been using the frame work of Miedema to make some useful tools for the estimation of the production of our dredging equipment in rock. In due time, you will find the results of his thesis in the online dredge selection tool ‘Sandy’. Omar’s curiosity and ingenuity does not end here. He will continue studying at a university, but I do hope to meet him again, as he would be a valuable asset for our dredging community. Keep an eye out for him.

Program structure diagram of cutting force calculations

His graduation brings me back to my first lessons in dredging technology at the Delft University of Technology by the illustrious professor de Koning. In a sense he was an old school engineer, who hammered it in to us that thinking is done by doing it with your hands3. Back than the Polytechnic School was just rebranded to University and he was mocking that as a university, we had to set the topics in a broader perspective. So, he started his introduction on cutting technology with some slides of the unfinished obelisk at Aswan4 as every aspect of the cutting process could be illustrated.

The story according to de Koning is: ‘Around the quarry of the obelisk, they have found diorites5. These are some sort of volcanic balls of rock. In combination with the marks and scratches all around the obelisk, archaeologists believe these stones have been used to pound the granite. The impact compresses the bedrock and the resulting stresses fracture the contact surface(1). For every hit a whiff of dust is created. Eventually the dust is collected and scooped away for the next layer. Next, trees would be planted in the trench on one side of the obelisk. The growing root system displaces volume and create shear stress underneath the obelisk that would sever the obelisk from the bed rock(2). At last the trees are removed and dry wooden dowels would have been inserted in the shear cracks. Saturating the wooden dowels will make them grow. The last strands of rock will now be broken due to tensile stresses(3). Repeated insertion of new dry dowels and saturating them will lift the whole obelisk enough to pull some ropes under and carry the obelisk away to the building site.’

Although the diorites and the scratch marks are a smoking gun, current archaeologists argue about the feasibility of this process as experiments yield a very low production and it is doubted that the obelisk could be finished in the lifetime of the client6. Even if disputed, de Koning told a story that conveys the message; I vividly remember it and makes me understand the rock cutting process.

These mysterious monolithic ornamental spires have been an inspiration for many legends and stories. When we have solved the riddle of the rock cutting with diorite balls, it may inspire the development of new rock cutting technology for the dredging community and we can put the story of the obelisks to an end.7

End of the story on the cutting of obelisks (Credit: Uderzo)

References

Sniffing Out The Details Of Dredge System Fittings

The mixture carrying system of a cutter suction dredge, is more than just a cutter and a pump in a pontoon. In the dredge system, there are many valves and fittings, that make the system work. One question I was asked, what these extra valves do. Actually, there are several valves, that are worth mentioning. The sniffer valve, the vacuum relief valve and the non-return valve. For working in the designed operating point, you don’t need them. But, to get there and back, they can be quite useful.

Dredge system layout and fitting locations

The first valve is affectionally called a sniffer valve. A more descriptive name would be ‘discharge line de aerator valve’. Usually, it consists of a floating ball in a cage with a seat at the top, that can be closed by the ball. Provided the ladder is already under water and starting up the dredge pump from a fresh situation, probably air is in the high onboard discharge pipe sections on deck. Behind the dredge, the line goes down again and the air is basically trapped, preventing the dredge pump from properly priming. The sniffer valve allows the air to escape and the water to enter the floating discharge pipe at the water line. Problem solved.

Arrangement and operation of a sniffer valve

On the other hand, when the discharge pressure falls, the ball floats down with the receding water level. This opens the top and allows air to enter the pipe again. Which is no problem as it can be expelled again through the same sniffer valve. When the water can flow away from the high section on board, this will break the water volume in the system. When opening the pump, only the small section between pump outlet and bulk head passage will fall in the pump well. Or, if properly executed: need to be drained and discharged.

A last function of the sniffer valve is in case there is a blockage of the suction pipe. There will be no new mixture flowing in, but the mixture in the discharge line still has a lot of momentum. For a 1 km, 500ø mm pipe, the mixture has the equivalent momentum of a 75 ton truck barrelling down the pipe at 80 km/h. You don’t stop that in an instant either. The mixture keeps flowing and draws a vacuum. The sniffer ball drops and allows air to enter the pipe.

A better way to prevent the vacuum, is to install a vacuum valve in the suction line. That will allow water in and enable you to clean the discharge line without a cavitating pump. Once the suction block is removed, the relief valve opens again and mixture can be inserted in the dredge line system.

In case there is a high discharge height, the mixture mass will not be broken by the sniffer valve. The geodetic pressure will close the sniffer and all of the mixture volume wants to return through the system out of the suction mouth; or open pump, swamping the dredge. To prevent this from happening, a non-return valve can be mounted in the onboard discharge line.

These fittings will cover most operational situations. There might be even more for exceptional situations, depending on the design choices by the manufacturer1 and to the taste of the owner.2 e.g. We provide a suction deaerating valve. Any ideas about such a provision?

References

Comment

04/03/2020, Mark:

I did receive the right comment about to the purpose of the suction deaerator valve. It is indeed for letting out the air trapped in the suction pipe when the ladder is being lowered. It could be argued that the air will also leave through the sniffer valve at the back of the dredge. If somehow, the air would have trouble escaping all the way to the back, the pump will be very slow in priming itself. Providing a deaerator on the local high at the bulkhead passage, the suction line can purge the air there and the pump starts quicker.

Which Teeth Will Survive The Cut? Adapting Your Selection

After my last post1, I received some comments and questions about the actual products we are applying in our cutter systems for our CSD’s2. Indeed, from a pure physical perspective, last post cuts to the heart of the processes, but does not explain our design of the working tool that makes a cutter suction dredge do its work.

Over the years, there has been a lot of development in this tool. Originally, suction dredges were plain suction dredges, working in non-cohesive sand. When the soil was more cohesive than could be dug with the standard suction dredges, attaching a mechanical device for loosening the ground enabled the suction dredge to work in this environment. From this original concept, the cutter head was already recognisable as a crown with teeth on a back ring and a suction mouth in the centre. From there, a lot of experimentation was done, but ultimately it all came back to this concept. Although modern cutter heads have a vastly improved performance and lifetime.

The cutting process in a modern cutter head is a combination of the rotation of the head and the swing of the dredge. The teeth describe a compound path of translation and rotation and each individual tooth has its own set of cutting parameters for depth and angle varying over time. Moreover, the combination of teeth on the different arms, allow for a staggering of the teeth that each tooth cuts fresh material and optimising the use of the teeth and spreading the wear. This results in a complicated geometry of the arms and a intricate pattern of the teeth.

Teeth system with adapters (left) teeth system direct on arm (right)

Once a cutter design has been chosen, there is still some tuning possible. Normally, the teeth are fitted on adapters and there are several teeth types available for a certain adapter. Pick points, Chisels and Flares. Most productivity can be expected from the wider teeth. However, the penetration of the wide teeth is less. So, for harder material you want to select narrower teeth.

Adapter system (left), teeth range with adapter (top), teeth range direct on arm (bottom)

Wear is also an issue3. And as the teeth are in direct contact with the fresh material, the wear rates can be severe. The disadvantage of a teeth and adapter system is that that are quite big. So, less teeth fit on an arm, reducing production on average. As most of our CSD’s are working in more gentle sands we selected a cutter system, that provides more teeth to engage in the action, increasing production. As these teeth are fitted directly on the arms, there are no adapters that wear also. Consequently having no adapters, simpler arms and dirt cheap teeth result in a low investment low OPEX cutter system. Although you might have to check the state of your teeth more often, in the end you spend less money on a cubic meter produced.

Teeth can be worn down to the root. Also they are not wearing evenly. Usually, they last longer on the outside, near the back ring. You might consider using different tooth forms over the arm. Experience and practice, will guide you in selecting the best combination. In line with the previous post, the analogy will be on the table. Just as you select different teeth for your fork, you can select different teeth on your cutter depending on the dish being served.

Category: CSD

Graduation Omar Karam: Rock Cutting The Egyptian Way

References

See also

Sniffing Out The Details Of Dredge System Fittings

References

See also

Comment

Which Teeth Will Survive The Cut? Adapting Your Selection

References

See also