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Analysis and Design Approach for Concrete Plugs for Underground Storage
Caverns

Article  in  Practice Periodical on Structural Design and Construction · May 2015

DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)SC.1943-5576.0000260

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 Analysis and Design Approach for Concrete Plugs
for Underground Storage Caverns
A. Usmani1; G. Kannan2; A. Nanda3; and A. Mandal4
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Abstract: In underground crude oil storage facilities, concrete plugs are mainly required to contain crude oil inside caverns and are
designed as gas-tight to prevent movement of any oil or vapor across the tunnel, either in a horizontal or vertical direction. Plugs are
retained in a key excavated in the rock surface, which provides sufficient bearing to the concrete mass under sustained loading conditions.
Construction of plugs involves mass concreting under the typically hot and humid conditions found in underground construction.
Therefore, the construction of plugs requires an engineering design that takes into account not only design loads and reinforcement, but also
the systematic cooling arrangement and efficient grouting mechanism so that the basic purpose of the plug design is not defeated. This
paper discusses the design and construction aspects involved in the construction of large tunnel and shaft plugs for an underground crude oil
storage project. DOI: 10.1061/(ASCE)SC.1943-5576.0000260. © 2015 American Society of Civil Engineers.
Author keywords: Plug; Tunnel; Shaft; Concrete; Cooling; Grouting.

Introduction
Concrete plugs in crude storage facilities (Fig. 1) are a critical
component used to contain the crude oil inside the rock cavern.
These plugs are designed as gas-tight to prevent any escape of oil
or gas and to withstand differential pressure occurring on account
of different fluid pressures stored across the plugs. Barcena et al.
(2005) suggested that a rough rock/plug interface is essential to
provide a frictional bond and reduce the hydraulic gradient along
the interface. There are generally two types of plugs required in
underground storage; tunnel plugs and shaft plugs (Fig. 1). The
tunnel plug is vertically located at a point to isolate crude oil,
forming a separation between oil and water. On the other hand, the
shaft plug is horizontal in the section and is covered by a long
column of water or concrete, below which oil and vapor is re-
tained. Plug construction involves a substantial volume of con-
crete, which results in the development of a great amount of heat-
hydration. Therefore, the probability of cracks occurring owing to
heat of hydration of the cement needs to be avoided. Provision is
made in the design stage as well as during the construction process
to prevent the development of large temperature gradients caused
by hydration of cement using concrete cooling arrangements. To
ensure airtightness of the plug for prevention of any gas leakage,
contact grouting of the plug is carried out at the concrete and rock
interface until a proper seal is established. This paper addresses the
1
Deputy Manager, Engineers India Ltd, New Delhi, India
(corresponding author). E-mail: altaf_usmani@rediffmail.com
2
Deputy Manager, Engineers India Ltd, 1, Bhikaji Cama Place, New
Delhi, India.
3
Deputy General Manager, Engineers India Ltd, 1, Bhikaji Cama Place,
New Delhi, New Delhi, India.
4
Associate Professor, Dept. of Civil Engineering, VNIT Nagpur,
Nagpur, Maharashtra, India.
Note. This manuscript was submitted on November 9, 2014; approved
on February 27, 2015; published online on May 15, 2015. Discussion
period open until October 15, 2015; separate discussions must be sub-
mitted for individual papers. This paper is part of the Practice Periodical
on Structural Design and Construction, © ASCE, ISSN 1084-0680/
04015004(7)/$25.00.
design and construction aspect of tunnel and shaft plugs that were
adopted in an underground crude oil storage project site.
Design Philosophy
Plugs are designed to resist failure mainly from five modes, viz,
mechanical jacking of rock surrounding the plug key, shear failure
through concrete along the contact rock, deep beam-flexure failure,
failure owing to excessive seepage around plug and long-term che-
mical/physical breakdown of concrete, grout, or surrounding
rock. Thus, there are three stages of design for the concrete plug:
(1) structural analysis and concrete design for worst loading
conditions to transfer the load safely to the surrounding rock,
(2) thermal analysis to study heat generation and cooling-system
design, and (3) design of a grouting system that will provide
desired long-term sealing for the plug. The concrete plug thickness
and reinforcement are designed to safely transfer the load coming
from the plug into the surrounding rock. This should be well sup-
ported by the cooling system, which is designed to reduce the risk of
thermal cracks that can develop during the strength gain in the
concrete followed by grouting arrangement to ensure gas-tightness of
the plug (after shrinking of the concrete). Cooling systems are pro-
vided first to limit the risk of thermal cracking during hardening of
the concrete and later to produce an injectable gap after shrinking
through which the grouting material can percolate; thus, grouting is
carried out to make the plug denser and ensure tightness of the plug.
The total pressure acting on plug is transferred to the sur-
rounding rock by means of a key that is cut into the rock surface
all along the periphery of the tunnel walls (Fig. 2). The plug is
retained both because of the cut in the rock (key-in) and because of
the forces of friction and adhesion occurring along the contact
surface of concrete with the rock. The plug design is based on
long-term operational requirements as well as construction meth-
odology adopted specific to each plug, either in the vertical or
horizontal plane. Thus, the design philosophy is different in the
case of a shaft plug versus a tunnel plug. Access tunnel plugs are
designed for single-stage plug construction to avoid creation of
any joint of weakness; hence, the construction sequence has no
impact on its design philosophy. However, the shaft plug is

© ASCE 04015004-1 Pract. Period. Struct. Des. Constr.

Pract. Period. Struct. Des. Constr.

 constructed in two stages or more to avoid heavy shuttering re- Shaft Plug Design
quired to cater for several hundred tons of reinforcement, piping,
Shaft plugs are located at an interface at which crude oil is lo-
cooling, and grouting-pipe loads. The plugs are constructed in
cated in the lower zone below the plug, and the upper zone is
specially excavated plug key-ins designed for the purpose. Pri-
filled either by concrete or a water column. Shafts of 12 × 8 m
marily to construct stable plugs, plug key-in locations are chosen
sizes were considered in this study. This plug is designed to
in rock masses that are massive, less jointed, and have high rock
withstand differential pressures on either side and also to support
quality and Q-values. The selected location should have minimal-
the load of casing pipes that are connected to different seepage
to-no seepage. It should also not be very close to any tunnel/cavern
and crude oil pumps. These casings loads are quite large and vary
junction areas.
from 200 to 300 tons, which is an operational requirement of
storage structures. In this project, shaft plugs are designed to
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Access Tunnel Plug Design resist the worst combination of pressure coming from the water/
concrete column, self-weight, and weight of the casings and
Tunnel plugs are dimensioned according to the size of the access
carrier pipes. Plugs consist of a trapezoidal-shaped bottom layer
tunnel, which is typically 8 × 8 m (D-shaped cross section in this
and top layer, as shown in Fig. 3, and are sealed in an enlarged
present study). Tunnel plugs are 3 m thick and extend into the rock
part of the shaft section known as the plug key. This widening
surface with a key depth of 1–2 m, as shown in Fig. 2. In under-
provides a good seat for the plug and distributes the unbalanced
ground storage projects, tunnel plugs are mainly designed to resist
load into the surrounding rock. Analysis is done assuming the
raw crude oil pressure, which also includes pressure of the gas
shaft plug as a simply supported slab that is supported on all four
above the oil surface, which is typically around 0.15 MPa. These
sides.
plugs are also designed to resist hydraulic pressure at the bottom of
The design of the tunnel and shaft plugs was carried out using a
the plug due to the water head (on other side of plug) used to
M40 Concrete Mix (IS 10262:2009) with sulfate-resisting cement
maintain hydraulic confinement around the caverns. In case of any
owing to its contact with the oil’s surface. Plug key-ins are ex-
explosion inside the caverns, plugs can be affected by the resulting
cavated inside the rock mass (e.g., gneiss, granite), which supports
pressure wave; hence, an accidental load of 1.0 MPa is also con-
the plug load by bearing and transfers the loads to sound rock
sidered during the design stage. Thus, the tunnel plug is designed
below. In the case of the tunnel plug, a governing load due to
to withstand maximum loads considering the preceding require-
water pressure for 45 m head of water per the tunnel plug elevation
ments. The tunnel plug design is checked for minimum crack-
was considered in this study. However, in the case of the shaft
width requirements prescribed for liquid retaining structures,
plug, total casing load of approximately 135 kN / m2 , plus that of
which is limited to 0.2 mm as per Cl. 4.4.1.2, IS 3370: Part 2
standing water above the plug, were considered in addition to live
(BIS 2009). A manhole in the center of the plug is also provided to
load and self-weight of the concrete. Because shaft plug con-
access the other side of the plug to facilitate removal of workers
struction is carried out in two stages of 1.5 and 2.5 m each for a
and machinery after completion of the plug.
4-m-thick shaft plug, the weight of second 2.5-m layer of concrete
is assumed to be taken care by the first layer of concrete during
design. The concrete plug is modeled as a four-noded plate ele-
ment using finite-element analysis. Plug reinforcement is calcu-
lated considering all final loads affecting the plug with the entire
Cavern plug thickness. Shear capacity of concrete (Timothy 2005) is

Shaft Plug
Shaft Plug Key
Tunnel

Water Curtain Tunnel

Shafts
Casings

Tunnel Plug

Fig. 1. Schematic layout of underground rock caverns Fig. 3. Plan and sectional view of a shaft plug along with casings

Plug Key

Plug

Manhole

Fig. 2. Plan, sectional, and three-dimensional view of a tunnel plug along with a circular manhole

© ASCE 04015004-2 Pract. Period. Struct. Des. Constr.

Pract. Period. Struct. Des. Constr.

 checked against shear stresses developed after final loading and
after casting the total thickness of the plug. Further adequacy of
the reinforcement is also checked against moments and shear
forces developed after the casting the first layer of concrete with all
empty casing loads transferred to it. Because of the staged
construction methodology, a check is made for induced stresses
developed in the steel owing to the first and second layers of
concrete. If the total stress developed in the steel after casing the
final concrete layer is higher than the strength of steel,
reinforcement obtained earlier is revised accordingly. The plug
is also checked against the shear-transfer capacity between the first
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and second layers of concrete, and if required, shear links between
the two layers of concrete are provided. Similarly, other
construction sequences that can affect design considerations
mainly include size of the ring beam adopted to support plug
shuttering, shuttering and arrangement of sleeves, and casting of
the first layer of the concrete plug.
The plug is analyzed as simply supported around its periphery
along the rock surface, and is modeled as a plate using plain stress
analysis. The reinforcement of the plug is established from the
plate tress model, on the basis of a slice of 1 m centered on the axis
of the plugs. This model provides the main support reactions from
which distribution of the uniform pressure both horizontally and
vertically is determined. Plug reinforcement is determined from the
distribution of tensile and compressive forces on the entire thickness
of the plug. Most of the reinforcement is confined around the per-
iphery of the plug surface owing to concentration of tensile forces as
the load is transferred to the rock through the key. However, some
minimum compressive reinforcement is also provided along the
middle layers to counteract large compressive forces.
Cooling Design
Introduction
It is well known that heat is produced during hydration of con-
crete. The temperature continues to rise within the structure as
long as the rate of heat development is higher than the rate of
dissipation to its surroundings. The structure will expand in vo-
lume during this initial phase, and later it will contract as it cools.
It is observed that volumetric changes within such a structure do
not take place freely owing to the presence of different restraints
that would also result in thermal stresses. Therefore, restraint, in
addition to the previously mentioned mechanisms, determines the
risk of thermal cracking. Restraint is often differentiated into in-
ternal and external restraint, with restraints such as reinforcement
(in the case of tunnel plugs) and reinforcement and piping (in the
case of shaft plugs) playing a major role in restricting this free
expansion of concrete along the rock surface.
To ensure plug tightness, the risk of thermal cracking is re-
duced by using cooling arrangements in the plug concrete during
and after casting of concrete until the concrete temperature reduces
to ambient levels. Plug tightness is also achieved through a
combination of cooling arrangements used to shrink the concrete
plug (as part of secondary cooling) followed by grouting to fill any
gap created while the concrete cools.
To study the behavior of concrete in confined conditions, a set
of semiadiabatic temperature tests was carried out on 1 × 1 × 1-m3
samples onsite in confined conditions, with the concrete filling in a
box closed on all four sides. Cube samples were made of M40 mix
(BIS 2000), and a water–cement ratio of 0.32 was considered per the
actual concrete mix design recommended for plug construction.
Four temperature sensors were placed inside the cube, with one at
© ASCE 04015004-3
Pract. Period. Struct. Des. Constr.
70
Channel -1
60 Channel -2
Channel -3
Temperature (ºC)
Channel -4
50
40
30
20
10
0
0 50 100 150 200 250 300 350
Time (h)
Fig. 4. Temperature variation of sensors during adiabatic test
the center and three on the side-faces of the cube. One sensor was
placed outside the cube to measure ambient temperature, which
maintained a constant 30–31°C. The temperature of concrete in the
adiabatic box was monitored on an hourly basis continuously for
7 days, as shown in Fig. 4, for four sensors. It is observed from the
figure that max temperature rise was noted in Sensor 1, located in the
center of the cube; this reached a maximum of 64°C, and on the side
face, the maximum value reached 57°C.
Many previous researchers have reported that several dele-
terious reactions occur in concrete during the hardening stage,
which can jeopardize durability of the concrete structure. One
of those damage mechanisms is the so-called delayed ettringite
formation (DEF) (Ji 2008), which is a result of too-high tempe-
rature while the concrete hardens. Delayed ettringite formation
may result in internal cracking of the concrete, even years after
construction. For this reason, construction codes in many
countries restrict the maximum concrete temperature during
hardening or setting of concrete. Different standards around the
world define the maximum allowable limits for temperature to
prevent cracking. For example, British Standard BS 8007 (BSI
1987) recommends that maximum concrete temperature must not
exceed 65°C, French standard NF EN 1992 recommends 70°C,
Irish standard IS 326 (National Standards Authority of Ireland
2004) recommends 60°C, and American Concrete Institute (ACI)
207.2R (ACI 2007) allows a maximum temperature of 70°C.
Thus, for different types of concrete plugs, DEF has to be avoided,
especially because of the risk of additional sulfate attack, to ensure
the functionality and tightness of the plug. Thus, maintaining the
temperature of the concrete below 60°C during and after the
concrete casting is extremely important for durable plug design.
Heat-hydration analysis of the concrete plug and subsequent
cooling design was carried out using numerical analysis program
MIDAS Civil (2011). MIDAS Information Technology Co., Ltd. as
shown in Fig. 5. This exercise was conducted to evaluate analy-
tically the effect of casting temperature on the heat of hydration in
a mass-concrete plug constructed using sulfate-resistant Portland
cement. The concrete plug is modeled using three-dimensional
elements, and analysis is carried out using the software’s heat-
transfer module, which entails the process of calculating the
change of nodal temperatures with time due to heat source/con-
vection. The modulus of elasticity of the concrete mix (M40) is
assigned as 3:16 × 1010 N/ m2 ; Poisson ratio = 0:2; thermal coef-
ficient = 1:0 × 10 −5 / °C; and density = 2:6 × 104 N / m3 . An am-
bient temperature of 30°C is considered for the analysis carried out
according to ACI 2007, with a compressive strength of 40 MPa
at 28 days. The heat-source function for the analysis was given
according to test reports of temperature monitoring of a concrete
cube tested with the same mix condition. Three-dimensional
Pract. Period. Struct. Des. Constr.
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Fig. 5. Heat of hydration analysis for tunnel plug
modeling and analysis of the plug is carried out, first with a heat
source in terms of a heat function, and then under a cooling-pipe
system. Temperatures due to the heat of hydration can be obtained
by examining the hourly time-step results. It is observed from the
results that the greatest temperature rise occurs after 35–40 h of
heat-source application, as noted in Fig. 4.
Different Stages of Cooling Arrangement
Many different solutions to the problem of thermal cracking are
practiced today. A reduction in cement content of the concrete in
combination with a reduction of the fresh concrete-mix temperature
could be used to lower the maximum temperature during hardening
to some extent. However, the cracking problem associated with
thermal gradients and ineffective grouting continues even after
adopting the previously discussed measures. However, as tunnel
and shaft plugs in an underground storage facility constitute the
most vital part, no risk to the life of these concrete structures is
allowed. Hence, design of a compatible cooling system is seen as
the only practical solution in such types of plugs. The advantage
of using these cooling pipes is twofold: first, to limit the risk of
thermal cracking occurred during hardening of the concrete, and
later, to produce an injectable gap for the grouting process to ensure
plug tightness.
Design of the cooling system is carried out according to the
results of the numerical analysis along with specific project re-
quirements; however, the final system of pipe arrangement is
governed by availability of space and construction sequence. The
standards ACI 207.4R-93 (ACI 1993) and ACI 207.2R-07 (ACI
2007) both suggest a basic methodology for calculation of flow
and cooling-pipe arrangements for mass concrete structures, which
is based on an old but good detailed investigation conducted
during the construction of dams and other mass concreting works.
However, this approach does not take into account the effect of
restraint, which is considerable for tunnel and shaft plugs.
The arrangement of the cooling pipes is chosen both from
experience and an iterative process. A denser array of cooling
pipes has to be placed in the bottom of the tunnel plugs close to
© ASCE 04015004-4
Pract. Period. Struct. Des. Constr.
the restraining rock foundation. In the case of the tunnel plug,
analysis revealed that in the bottom part of the tunnel plug, close
to the restraining rock foundation, cooling pipes are placed at
a dense array (distance of approximately 400 mm) for effective
cooling. It is observed that owing to the low heat-transfer
capability of concrete, a larger distance between the individual
cooling pipes would result in an increased temperature between
the cooling pipes and thus a higher risk for thermal cracking.
However, higher up in the tunnel plugs, the crack risk lowers
owing to the larger distance from the restraining border (elastic
resilience, according to high-beam theory). In these parts of
the tunnel plugs, the distance between the individual cooling
pipes is increased up to 700 mm, as shown in Fig. 6. Thus,
the maximum temperature in between the individual cooling
pipes and the geometry of the plugs is a significant factor for
cooling design. In the case of the tunnel plug, the geometry of
the plugs and the properties of the concrete allow for a maximum
spacing of 800 mm. The required distribution of the cooling
system into individual cooling coils calls for a maximum length
of 60–80 m of cooling pipes. The required flow in a cooling
coil is set between 20 and 27 (× 10 −3 ) m3 / min to limit the
increase of water temperature in the coil. However, when the
length of the coils increased, the flow and, consequently, the
operating pressure had to be increased to achieve the desired
cooling effect. This would largely increase the cost for achieving
a watertight cooling system, especially because of the more
complicated joints. A typical rise of temperature inside a full 8-m
plug, along with time at four different sensor locations, is shown
in Fig. 7. All of the sensors were placed at four locations, as
shown in Fig. 7. It is observed from the figure that owing to the
arrangement of the cooling pipes, for the same concrete mix,
the maximum temperature in the concrete has only reached 54°C,
which is less than the limits prescribed by different standards for
DEF, which can result in the cracking of concrete. Soon after the
concrete in the tunnel plugs is mature (28 days of hardening), the
surfaces of the plugs are isolated and the cooling temperature is
slowly reduced in the tunnel plugs. The reduction in temperature
will result in thermal contraction of the tunnel plug and will
widen the gap between rock and concrete at the top and sides of
Pract. Period. Struct. Des. Constr.
 Cooling Pipes 25 mm diameter
3000

1000
700
700

8000

8000
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600

500

Primary Cooling
8000
Secondary Cooling
1000

Fig. 6. Plan and sectional view of cooling arrangement with cooling pipes

60.0
Sensor-1
Sensor-2
50.0 Sensor-3
Temperature (ºC)

Sensor-4
40.0 Sensor-5

30.0

20.0

10.0

0.0
0.0 50.0 100.0 150.0 200.0 250.0 300.0
Time (h)

Fig. 7. Temperature measurement inside a tunnel plug during concrete pouring

the plug. This temperature reduction has to be done slowly to
avoid cracking in this phase. When the complete plug has been
cooled down to the desired temperature, grouting needs to be
performed. Once the grout has hardened, the plug will be re-
stored to ambient temperature, which will result in compressed
plugs.
Grouting Procedure
Introduction
Grouting is performed in tunnel and shaft plugs after completion
of plug-casting to achieve complete gas-tightness of the plug.
Once the plug key is excavated per the design requirements, rock-
mass grouting is performed to grout all the blast-induced cracks
near the key-in surface in the excavated damaged zone. The rock
mass surrounding a minimum 5 m of the plug area on all sides is
grouted with higher pressure of up to 2.0 MPa, as shown in Fig. 8.
Ordinary Portland cement (OPC) cement is used for this purpose;
depending on the rock type, microcement may also be used. Rock-
mass grout holes are spaced 0.5 m on all sides. The packer should
be put as close to the surface of the holes (approximately 50 cm in
depth).
Although casting the plug, several measures are taken to avoid
shrinkage cracks within the concrete; however, contact between
the rock mass and the concrete may not be tight owing to several
reasons, viz, differential expansion of rockmass and concrete
during casting of plug; shrinkage of concrete plug; uneven contact
surface between plug and the rock mass; gaps created in the
contact, especially at the crown, owing to gravity settling of ce-
ment during casting; and gaps created in the contact possibly
due to improper compaction, which is practically difficult to
achieve at times.
These gaps in the contact are grouted after casting of the plug
to achieve watertightness and gastightness of the plug. Therefore,
for the purpose of contact grouting, grout-injection tubes are
embedded inside the plug before casting.
Once the concrete plug attains its design strength (28 days after
casting), it is cooled again to 5°C. The embedded cooling-pipe
networks used for the primary cooling are also used for the sec-
ondary cooling. This reduced temperature will allow the plug to
shrink and create more gaps artificially in the contact between the
cast plug and the rock mass. Two consecutive stages of contact
grouting are performed at this stage. Grout is injected in the gaps
between the concrete plug and rock mass during cooling and once
set, the cooling stops and the plug attains normal ambient tem-
perature. At this stage, the plug expands to its normal size and the

© ASCE 04015004-5 Pract. Period. Struct. Des. Constr.

Pract. Period. Struct. Des. Constr.

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Fig. 8. Plan and sectional view of postgrouting arrangement around a tunnel plug

Outer injection tube for grouting (Inner diameter 10 mm minimum)

Inner/Central injection tube for grouting (Inner diameter 10 mm minimum)
Minimum 54 mm diameter semiflexible
grouting pipe 500 c/c
2500
4000

30°

GI Pipes drilled 50 cm inside rock

1500

Minimum 45 diameter borehole

500 c/c (Rock mass grouting)

Fig. 9. Sectional view of contact grouting-pipe arrangement around a tunnel plug

grouted contact between the plug and rock mass are further sealed,
resulting in tight plug.
Two stages of contact grouting are performed to ensure com-
plete gastightness of the concrete plug. The first stage is carried out
with ordinary Portland cement and later with microcement. The
first-stage contact grouting acts more as backfill concreting and
fills any large voids, such as those created in the roof and upper
wall area of the plugs. These are implemented by embedded gal-
vanized iron (GI) pipes inserted approximately 50 cm inside the
rock mass. These pipes are placed at 0.5-m spacing all along the
sides, similar to rock-mass grout holes. The leftover hole portion
used for rock mass grouting can be used for this grouting instead
of fresh drilling through the GI pipe into the rock mass. During the
secondary cooling of the plug, the gaps created by shrinkage in the
contact are filled primarily with this grout at 0.5 MPa pressure.
During grouting of these pipes, the grout first fills the GI pipes and
the hole, and the annular space between pipe and the hole in the rock
mass, which then overflows and the grout spreads along the contact
between the plugs and rock mass. Foam or thin mortar is applied to
the opening of the annular space during the casting of plug to pre-
vent cement slurry from entering the annular space. Large grout
consumption is expected because leakage can be found from the
contact on both sides of the plug. Hence, OPC is used. Quick-set
cement is applied on the leak surface along with some textile fiber to
stop the leakage and make the grout successful.
Second-stage contact grouting starts once the first-stage grout is
completed and has gained strength under secondary cooling
(normally after 2 days). This is performed with microcement,
which penetrates the leftover small spaces of the first-round con-
tact grout with OPC. For this, specially designed perforated grout-
injection tubes are embedded inside the plug. They are placed in
three peripheral rows in contact with the rock at 1 m interspacing
distance. These pipes are laid not more than 5 m in length. They
are overlapped to cover the entire perimeter in each row. These
pipes are made of PVC, which can withstand the high pressure
created by the hardened concrete. They have an outer protective
layer that prevents cement slurry entering the grout pipes during
casting of the plug. Although grouting, the grout pressure of 0.3
MPa from inside the tubes opens the protective layer covering the
perforations and allows the grout to flow out of the tubes in
contact.
In the case of the shaft plugs, secondary cooling is not performed
during contact grouting. Here, because gravity causes the plug to be
horizontal, the lower contact gets better tightness than its tunnel-
plug counterpart. However, the same procedure for contact grouting
is followed as outlined previously for tunnel plugs.
Plug-Tightness Testing
Before second-stage contact grouting with microcement, water is
injected through perforated grout-injection tubes to check the in-
jection tube function and quantify the volume of leak and void
space in the contact. This is called as tightness test and is carried
out through the central tube at 0.3 MPa pressure, as shown in
Fig. 9 using water. This is performed using specially designed
perforated grout-injection tubes embedded in the plug that are 5 m
long, overlapped, and placed at 1 m interspacing distance, as ex-
plained earlier in the grouting section. Central pipes are numbered
as C1–C10 and placed along the periphery of the plug, as shown in
Table 1. The tightness test is conducted in two stages, one before
and one after the second-stage contact grouting. Table 1 lists the
amount of leakage observed through the various sets of pipes. It is

© ASCE 04015004-6 Pract. Period. Struct. Des. Constr.

Pract. Period. Struct. Des. Constr.

 Table 1. Tightness Test for Tunnel Plug
Center tube
Excess/leakage volume of water (× 10 −3 m3 )
Serial
number Description C1 C2 C3 C4 C5 C6 C7 C8 C9 C10
1. Initial water test before contact grouting 6.9 18 22 28 27.2 20.5 14.0 16.9 24.2 20.5
2. Final watertightness test after contact grouting 0.4 0.1 0.2 1.1 0.1 0.0 0.5 0.1 01 0.3

observed that whereas initially the leakage volume is higher before around the plug periphery. Construction sequence also pays a
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the second-stage contact grouting, it reduces significantly after the
second-stage contact grouting. This second-stage contact grouting
is first performed only in two outer-row injection tubes leaving the
central row empty, as shown in Fig. 9. The grout is injected
through each individual injection tube, which has both inlet and
outlet hoses coming out of the plug. They are properly numbered
and labeled. Grout left in the pipes is removed by flushing at a
pressure less than the pore-opening pressure of these injection
tubes, before the initial set of microcement. After the grout sets in
the rock mass, secondary cooling stops. Once the plug attains the
normal temperature, a watertightness test is performed in the
central row injection tubes at 0.3 MPa water pressure. If the central
pipes are found to be leaking through the contact, or water is
seeping across the plug through the blast cracks, grouting is per-
formed through the outer-row tubes again at normal temperature.
The grout-injection tubes are specially designed for regrouting for
this purpose. Every time immediately after grouting, the grout
material inside the tubes is flushed at low pressure so that the pipes
can be used for regrouting. Thus, the plug tightness is achieved
through contact grouting. Finally, after successive tightness tests,
the central-row injection tubes are also grouted with microcement
at 0.7 MPa pressure.
Conclusions
This paper presents a study on different aspects involved in the
design and construction of large concrete plugs constructed for an
underground storage facility. These plugs are mainly required to
separate crude oil and water and are designed as airtight to prevent
flow of any vapor across the tunnel either in a horizontal tunnel or
through a vertical shaft. The design philosophy of these plugs is
based on the mechanical jacking of a concrete surface inside a
V-shaped key, and bonding is developed owing to forces of fric-
tion and adhesion occurring along the contact surface of concrete
along the rock surface. Because mass concreting is involved in the
construction of these plugs, suitable arrangements for the cooling
of concrete from inside are carried out to prevent development of
high temperatures inside the cores. Finally, leakproof tightness of
the plug is achieved by use of rock mass and contact grouting
major role in construction of these plugs; specifically in case of the
shaft plug, in which reinforcement and concrete have to be cast
through a set of already installed casing pipes. Thus, the con-
struction of such large plugs in underground storage conditions
presents a challenge both to the designers and the site team to
build a sound and durable concrete structure that is completely
airtight and watertight.
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