A nomogram for cement-based rock grouting

•Improved rock grouting design by considering the shear rate aspects of cement grouts.•Derivation of the wall shear rate formular for two-dimensional radial flow.•Correct Bingham parameter estimation based on the critical and no-slip shear rates.•A nomogram that links the key grouting variables in a single unified diagram. The assumption of cement grouts as ‘Bingham fluids’ has thus far facilitated the development of simplified analytical tools for rock grouting design. However, from a practical standpoint the use of the Bingham constitutive law throughout the design phase has several shortcomings that merit being more systematically addressed. For instance, the known key attributes of cementitious suspensions, e.g. wall-slip, thixotropy, shear rate and time dependency that influence the grout propagation especially at low shear rates are not considered when the Bingham model is used. As such, the consequences of overlooking such crucial phenomena whilst aiming for simplicity in design remain relatively unknown. In this work, we show how considering the shear rate aspects and stop criteria with the Bingham model can be better used for grouting design. Our design suggestions are based on fundamental analysis and theory of Bingham fluid radial flow and current knowledge on cement grout rheological behaviour, as reported from rheological experiments. Moreover, we contribute to the existing design procedure by presenting a nomogram that can readily be used for practical rock grouting design. The nomogram approach allows rapid computation of all key parameters, which in essence shows that unless wall slip is taken into account up to ~50% overestimation of grout travel results.