DREDGING

Dredging is the operation of removing material from one part of the water environment and relocating it
to another. In all but a few situations the excavation is undertaken by a specialist floating plant, known as
a dredger. Dredging is carried out in many different locations and for many different purposes, but the
main objectives are usually to recover material that has some value or use, or to create a greater depth of
water.

PURPOSES OF DREDGING:

1. To maintain the depth in existing ports, harbors and channels to provide ready and safe passage for
commercial and recreational vessels.

2. To create new or deeper access or berths for vessels. This may mean the deepening and widening of
channels and anchorages as well as the excavation of basins and marinas from areasof previously dry
land.

3. To provide materials for specific purposes (e.g. beaches at coastal areas subject to erosions are
sometimes 'renourished' with sand dredge from other areas).

4. To bypass an artificial structure, such as breakwater, that is an obstacle to the normal pattern of
sediment movement along the coast.

5. To prevent a built up of materials to be deposited downstream of the obstacle to allow the natural
sediment transport process to occur.

6. To place a structure inside water bodies.

PROCESS OF DREDGING:

1. Pretreatment is process of treatment on the ground before performing the dredging operation. It is
usually consists of separate operation carried out independently of other dredging. The two basic methods
of pretreatment are chemical and mechanical, both are used in rock or cemented soil.
2.Extraction is a process that involves the movement of the spoil from its natural pretreated position into
vertical transportation and its delivery to the transport system. These is often a combination of at least two
operations: the primary which disintegrates or dislodges the soil and the secondary which moves the soil.
The first of this operation is performed either mechanically or hydraulically.

3. Disposal is the process of removing or throwing away the spoil materials. Its facilities are consist of
bottom discharge, grab, scrapers, pipelines, land base unit and natural processes.

TYPE OF DREDGERS:

Hydraulic Dredgers: works by sucking up sediments and water from the bottom surface then transferring
the mixture through the pipeline to another location. This dredge acts like a giant floating vacuum,
removing sediments. Hydraulic dredging is most effective when working with finely grained materials.

Mechanical Dredgers: works by mechanically digging or gathering sediments from the bottom surface of
the body of water, typically through the use of buckets. Mechanical dredging takes place at the shoreline

or working off a barge and may or may not involve draining a lake.

PRINCIPAL TYPES OF HYDRAULIC DREDGERS OR SUCTION DREDGERS:

1. Plain Suction Dredger - Is the simplest hydraulic floating dredger with a centrifugal pump and
auxiliary equipment mounted in the hull.A plain suction dredger is a stationary dredger that position
on one ore more wires, with at least one dredge pump, which is connected to the suction pipe and
the delivery pipe. The suction pipe is situated in a well in front of the pontoon. Good production can
only achieved by this kind of dredgers either the soil is free running sand or the cut or breach height
is sufficient (at least 10 m) The discharge of the soil sucked is done either by pipeline or by barges.
Most suction dredgers are equipped with jet water pump(s) to assist either the beaching process or to
improve the mixture forming process near the suction mouth.

2. Cutter Suction Dredger - The cutter suction dredger is a stationary dredger equipped with a
cutter device (cutter head) which excavate the soil before it is sucked up by the flow of the dredge
pump(s). During operation the dredger moves around a spud pole by pulling and slacking on the two
fore sideline wires. This type of dredger is capable to dredge all kind of material and is accurate due
to their movement around the spud. The spoil is mostly hydraulically transported via pipeline, but
some dredgers do have barge-loading facilities as well.

Sea going cutter suction dredgers have their own propulsion, however this is only used during (de)
mobilization. Cutter power ranges from 50 kW up to 5000 kW, depending on the type of soil to be
cut. The small and medium size cutter suction dredgers are deliverable in a demountable

application. In that case the hull consists out of five or more pontoons. The central pontoon contains
the machinery.

3. Dust-pan Hydraulic Dredger - Is similar to cutter suction but its suction head is like a dust pan
or a vacuum cleaner nozzle. It is a suction dredger with a wide suction mouth, which makes it
possible to dredge with reasonable productions low cut heights.
4. Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger - A Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger (TSHD) is a self-
propelled sea-going or inland vessel equipped with a hold, called hopper, and a dredging installation
by which it can fill and/or empty the hopper. The basic options of a THSD are:

>¤ One or more suction tubes provided with suction mouths (dragheads) which are dragged
over the seabed during dredging.

>¤ One or more dredge pumps to suck the material from the seabed.

>¤ A hopper in which the dredged material can settle.

>¤ Easy operational bottom doors or valves in the hopper to dump the dredge material

>¤ Gantries and winches to operate the suction tubes.

A swell compensator to control the contact between the suction mouth and the seabed when

dredging in waves. The size of a TSHD is expressed in the hopper volume and varies between a
few hundred m3 up to 33000 m3.
 5. Bucket Wheel Dredger - This dredger is, with the exception of the cutter head, is comparable
with the cutter suction dredger. The rotation axe of the bucket wheel is perpendicular with the
ship axe. The wheel contains 10 – 14 open or closed buckets. Due to the construction of the drive
the wheel is difficult to replace and therefore less universal than the cutter suction dredger. Its
application area is the same as the cutter dredger with the exception of hard rock.

PRINCIPAL TYPES OF MECHANICAL DREDGERS:

1. Bucket Ladder Dredger - The bucket ladder dredge or bucket chain dredger is a stationary
dredger, which has an endless chain of buckets carried by the so-called ladder, positioned in the well
of a Ushape pontoon. The chain is driven by the upper tumbler, a pentogonal, at the upper part of the
ladder and fixed at the bottom with lower tumbler, mostly a hectagonal. Under the ladder the chain
hangs freely, while on the upper site of the ladder the chain is supported and guided by rollers. The
buckets filled during their rotation over the lower tumbler are emptied by the rotation over upper
tumbler. The soil from there guided via shutes to an alongside layer barge.

Bucket sizes vary from 30 liters to 1200 liters. Rock bucket dredgers do have a double set of
buckets; a small rock bucket and
a bigger soft soil bucket.
2. Hydraulic Cranes - Hydraulic cranes are available in two models the backhoe and the front
shovel. The first is used most. The difference between those two is the working method. The
backhoe pulls the bucket to the dredger, while the front shovel pushes. The last method is only used
when the water depth is insufficient for the pontoon.

These stationary dredgers are anchored by three spud poles; two fixes to the front side of the
pontoon and one movable at the aft
side. This means that the
dredging depth is limited to
about 15 m. (maximum 25 m). At
the front of the pontoon is
normally a standard cranes
mounted. Here pontoon deck is
lower to increase the dredging
depth. Bucket sizes vary
from a few m3 to 20 m3.

3. Grab or Clamshell Dredger - The grab or clamshell dredger is the most common used dredger in
the world, especially in North America and the Far East. It is a rather simple and easy to understand
stationary dredger with and without propulsion. In the latter the ship has a hold (hopper) in which it
can store the dredge material, otherwise the material is transported by barges. The dredgers can be
moored by anchors or by poles (spuds). The capacity of a grab dredger is expressed in the volume of
the grab. Grab sizes varies between less than 1 m 3 up to 200 m3. The opening of the grab is
controlled by the closing and hoisting wire or by hydraulic cylinders.
 4. Dragline - This method consists in dragging an open steel bucket along the sea bed until it fills up.
When full, the bucket is lifted and its load dumped on the shore or into a barge.

Grab or Clamshells Dredger

Grab or clamshells dredgers are very

commonly used, rather simple and easy
to understand stationary vessels, with
and without propulsion.

WORK METHOD OF GRAB

OR CLAMSHELL
DREDGERS

Grab or clamshell dredgers have either a

rotating cab or fixed A-frame-type
barge-mounted equipment. They have
hoisting and control systems and use grab (clamshell) digging devices or buckets rigged on cables to
excavate the material from the waterbed at or near its in situ density and transport it vertically out of the
water and into barges for subsequent transport to the placement area. Normally they are stationary, being
fixed at the excavation site using anchors or spuds. The discharge of the material is usually done by
transporting it with barges. However, some grab cranes are placed on self-propelled hoppers, so the
material is transported by the dredger itself. Also, for grab dredgers used for winning sand and gravel,
material may be discharged to a separator installation through conveyor belts.

ADVANTAGES

> ability to dredge in fairly deep waters

> ability to carry out precise spot dredging,

> ability to remove isolated areas above grade either in the navigation prism or along dock walls and in
corners of docks.

TYPES OF MATERIAL

Grab dredgers can be used in sands, clay, gravel, cobbles and occasionally broken rock.

LIMITATIONS

They are not particularly effective in fine silts, which have a tendency to run out of the bucket. However,
they are used for this purpose in smaller jobs or when fitted with special sealed buckets.

PRODUCTION RATES

Depending on the type of material dredged, they have moderate to low production rates.

PROJECT APPLICATIONS

The large grab dredgers are used for bulk dredging. Smaller grabs are mostly used for special jobs, such
as:

-not easily accessible places in harbors

-small quantities in strongly varying depths

-along quay walls where the soil is damaged by wires and debris

-borrowing sand and gravel in deep pits

-sand and gravel mining

-moraine areas, that is, areas with an accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris where big stones can
be expected.
DRAGLINE

Dragline falls in heavy equipment’s category. Dragline excavator is used for civil engineering projects
and surface mining. Dragline is the largest equipment ever built on this planet. Dragline consists of drag
rope, large bucket, boom, hoist rope and driving motors.
WORK METHODS
In a typical cycle of excavation, the bucket is positioned above the material to be excavated. The bucket is
then lowered and the dragrope is then drawn so that the bucket is dragged along the surface of the
material. The bucket is then lifted by using the hoist rope. A swing operation is then performed to move
the bucket to the place where the material is to be dumped. The dragrope is then released causing the
bucket to tilt and empty. This is called a dump operation. On crane-type draglines, the bucket can also be
'thrown' by winding up to the jib and then
releasing a clutch on the drag cable. This would
then swing the bucket like a pendulum. Once
the bucket had passed the vertical, the hoist
cable would be released thus throwing the
bucket. On smaller draglines, a skilled
operator could make the bucket land about
one-half the length of the jib further away
than if it had just been dropped. On larger
draglines, this is not a common practice.

ADVANTAGES
 ability to drag material at far distance from the machine
 the ability to excavate very deep down the earth.

Can be used in:

 Road Excavation
 Deep down pile driving
 Construction of ports harbor, dredge, etc.
 Surface mining
 Deep down excavation
 Underwater excavation
Limitation:
The primary limitations of draglines are their boom height and boom length, which limits where the
dragline can dump the waste material. Another primary limitation is their dig depth, which is limited by
the length of rope the dragline can utilize. Inherent with their construction, a dragline is most efficient
excavating material below the level of their base. While a dragline can dig above itself, it does so
inefficiently and is not suitable to load piled up material (as a rope shovel or wheel loader can).