Application of sluiced hydrotransport to removal of excavated rock in Aswan Dam tunneling: Fid-Bau Portal

Application of sluiced hydrotransport to removal of excavated rock in Aswan Dam tunneling

Panfilov, V. S.

Conclusions 1. The application of the method described to the Aswan dam construction site must be considered a successful test of the sluiced hydrotransport method for the transportation of crushed rock in construction work. This method was not new in principle; but it had never been put to practical use at construction sites despite its many advantages compared to rock transportation by suckers. This was due to lack of experience and the non-availability of special sluicing machines. 2. The experience gained here proved the feasibility of fairly simple sluiced hydrotransport organization based on available equipment which can easily be rebuilt for this purpose; it also proved that sluicing machines with the required characteristics can be built with the manpower available on the construction site. On the principle of sluiced hydrotransport it is possible to build simple, compact, and efficient systems for the transport of gravel and crushed rock. Such systems would find many uses in construction work. 3. We must consider as new in principle the application of hydrotransport to rock transportation under tight working conditions in tunnels. 4. We must ask the construction machine and equipment industry to design and build simple, easy-to-operate sluicing machines for hydrotransport of gravel and crushed rock of different characteristics in respect to the capacity and the size of the sluiced materials. With such equipment available, the hydrotransport of gravel and crushed rock could find a broad application in different fields of the construction and mining industry, such as quarries, gravel screening plants, construction of rock-fill dams, construction of reverse filters, tunneling, ore-dressing enterprises, etc.