Field Trials of Suction-Assisted Installation of Circular Steel Pipe Cofferdam in Silty Sand

Abstract

The cofferdam is the temporary barrier to stop the flow of water from a construction site work such as a support column foundation at a river or offshore. It allows for working in the dry condition when the construction is done adjacent or within the waters. However, it is a major cause of delays and increased construction costs because additional works are required to stop the water flow. Recently, in order to overcome the limitations of the conventional cofferdam methods such as sheet pile or caisson tube cofferdams, a large-diameter steel pipe cofferdam method has been proposed which can be installed quickly using suction installation method. The steel pipe cofferdam method is characterized in that the top-lid of the steel pipe is located above the sea level in order to use it as a water barrier, unlike conventional suction buckets where the whole structures are submerged. In this study, the circular steel pipe cofferdam with a 5 m inner diameter was fabricated and the installation tests were conducted on silty sand at the Saemaguem test site. During the experiment, variations of suction pressure and inclination of the steel pipe cofferdam were measured and post-analyzed. This study verified the new steel pipe cofferdam method and confirmed that the suction installation method can be successfully used for various purposes on the offshore structures.