13.07.

2019 Modern seals for segment l n ng ntegr ty

TunnelTECH

Modern seals for segment lining integrity 19 May 2016

Maurice B Jones, WAM Underground Communications for TunnelTalk

The gaskets placed between lining segments in many TBM-bored tunnels are a vital component in ensuring a long and
useful life for the tunnel by protecting the lining and the tunnel interior from ingress of groundwater, and other
material, under pressure. Maurice Jones reviews recent developments in the design and materials of gaskets that
have enabled the efficiency of installation and the lining itself to be improved. Chief among these developments are
anchored or cast-in gaskets, the use of hydrophilic material to swell on contact with moisture, and designs to resist
higher pressures.

Most sealing gaskets for tunnel lining segments are made from extruded EPDM rubber. A section through the gasket
shows a cell structure of apertures that allows, by design, the gasket to be compressed in a known way as the
segments are installed and pushed together during installation of a lining ring. Generally the larger the gasket
structure, the greater the groundwater pressures that can be handled, but much depends on the quality of manufacture
and materials.

Anchored (cast-in) gaskets are equipped, in cross-

section, with one or more foot-like extensions that
can be cast into the concrete of the segment during
manufacture. Such designs eliminate the major step
of gluing the gasket into the groove prior to
installation of the segments. This usually takes
place in the casting factory, and just before delivery
to the jobsite.

Anchored gaskets have a development history of

more than 20 years, dating back to British,[1]

German and European patents filed in the early
1990s. They have only recently found widespread
application, however. Peter Tiedemann, Key
Accounts Manager for rail and tunnel products with
seal manufacturer Dätwyler, explained that Phoenix
issued the first gasket for segmental tunnel lining.
Dätwyler acquired the rights to the Phoenix product
Examples of Dätwyler cast-in gaskets showing a
coextruded partially hydrophilic type on the right range but relevant patents have expired.

The initial major application of anchored gaskets

was by Phoenix (now Dätwyler), in conjunction with Herrenknecht Formwork, as technical lead for a 500m-long, 3.15m
o.d., sewer in Moscow in 2008. Dätwyler further pioneered the use of anchored gaskets at the Ridham casting plant set
up in the UK to cast the segments for Thames Water’s 7km-long deep-level Lee Tunnel sewerage project in east London.
CBE segment moulds were procured for casting the 7.8m i.d. primary segmental lining designed by Underground
Professional Services.

Since the start of construction of the Lee Tunnel, Dätwyler and other manufacturers have supplied anchored gaskets to
several other tunnel projects as the advantages came to be realised. Dätwyler recently won a contract – against strong
competition – to supply anchored segment gaskets to the NODO di Firenze high-speed rail project in Florence, Italy,

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13.07.2019 Modern seals for segment l n ng ntegr ty
after the product passed stringent pressure tests. Tiedemann emphasises that manufacturer service is important to
tunnel contractors. “Low price alone does not help a contractor enjoy a successful and profitable project,” he said.

Dätwyler has also supplied anchored gaskets to

several other projects – from the 1km-long
Islington-St Pancras sewer tunnel in London, to the
33km-long Doha Metro Green Line in Qatar.
Additionally, and for the first time in the USA, the
Blue Plains CSO tunnel in Washington DC uses
anchored gaskets in segments made by Traylor Bros
and Technopref Industries; as does the San
Francisco Central Subway for the Barnard Impregilo
Healy (BIH) joint venture in segments
manufactured by Precast Management Co. Both
projects are supplied by Dätwyler.

Although installation of the segmental lining in the

Lee Tunnel is reported to have gone smoothly
Casting carousel implemented by Fama at Saint Martin
overall, there is some disagreement over the role of de la Porte
gasket corners – where the gasket material has to
be mitred and vulcanised at the joint corner. Charles Allen, a materials expert working on the project and a Director of
OtB Concrete, said: “We are over the moon with the performance of the manufacturer, and of the handling of the
anchored gaskets. They stay in position on the segments and eliminate the need for a gluing station with its associated
problems of solvent fumes and the presence of flammable materials.

He added: “There was only one negative aspect, and that was associated with the mitred corners of the gaskets.
Vulcanising material filling the holes in the gasket section caused it to harden at the mitre – and the EPDM material is
incompressible. Associated with some ’rucking’ of the gasket during segment installation, this can form a high point of
the harder material and can cause difficulties when segments are being installed. Some of the concrete segments
cracked as a result of two stiff corners being placed together, and this introduces the potential for leakage problems.”

According to Dätwyler’s Tiedeman, however, “this

was a rumour based on problems they had when
starting the tunnel boring process.” He added:
“They forgot to lubricate the gasket, which is not a
gasket failure but rather a mishap of the tunnel
boring crew. This was resolved immediately and the
tunnel was finished as expected, and the gasket
performed as expected. We (Dätwyler) tested the
gasket at an independent institute (MPA –
Materialprüfanstalt für Werkstoffe und
Produktionstechnik, Hannover), which confirmed
that the Lee Tunnel gasket corner creates no cracks
and is well designed.”

Peter Jewell, CH2M-Hill Engineering Manager for the

tunnel project, confirmed that the experience of
using anchored gaskets for the Lee Tunnel has, in
View of segment concrete spalling at a T-joint with gasket
[Photo: Dr Werner Grabe] general, gone very well. “I always believed that it
was a great decision for the Ridham casting plant to
go for anchored gaskets, and this has been borne out in practice.” Aware of the gasket corner hardening problems,
Jewell maintains that this was largely due to lack of lubrication of the corners when erecting segment rings during the
early stages of tunnelling.

Concrete spalling at the T-joint between three segments has been reported in other projects. STUVA (the German
tunnelling professional and research body) has introduced a new corner-load-deflection test, in addition to other
performance tests, though without any specific allowable reaction loads. Further tests carried out in 2008 by the
University of Hanover showed that, under the test sample criteria, spalling occurs under reaction loads higher than 320
kN/m, or with 100% filling of the gasket grooves.

Corner solutions
UK manufacturer VIP Polymers re-entered the tunnel segment gasket sector in 2012, having once offered the Heinke-
branded gasket technology between the early 1980s and 2005. This brand was later sold to Trelleborg, which is famous
for its immersed tube tunnel seals. It has developed a (patent-pending) corner jointing system for gaskets to eliminate
point loading.

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13.07.2019 Modern seals for segment l n ng ntegr ty
Trelleborg Ridderkerk has also been working on the
problem. Marketing Director for Trelleborg
Engineered Products, Ruud Bokhout, said: “For high
quality and performance of the complete gasket it is
essential to have a design that can be compressed
without too much force, but still with sufficient force
to seal against high water pressure – in other
words, a balance between compression force and
sealing characteristics.”

ES Rubber’s solution to the perceived gasket corner

problem was granted a European patent in 2008.[3]

The development consists of a design by Dr Werner
Grabe that ensures sufficient space, with the gasket
corner protected to ensure that the material is still
sufficiently compressible into the segment gasket
groove. This is achieved by rectangular pins in the Segment storage at the restricted Koralm Tunnel site
segment mould closing the hollow channels of the
gasket profile to prevent ingress of vulcanising material while still supporting the tip of the corner. There are also
further cylindrical pins to reduce the volume of rubber. It is claimed that this design has a reaction load based on only
around 120% of the gasket profile, compared to 300% of the volume for a conventional vulcanised corner.

This design was used in the Diabolo Tunnel under

runways at Belgium’s Zaventem airport, while the
latest application of an ES Rubber segment gasket
with ‘soft corners’ will be the Tel Aviv Metro in
Israel. A version of the Grabe soft corner has also
been developed for coextruded hydrophilic seals
used in India and Singapore.

VIP Polymers’ approach has been to produce

specifically angled corner joints with the same open
channels as the main gasket design. In a new
process, each has thin vulcanising ‘shot-films’
between the ends of the gasket profiles. This
enables the gasket to be placed in the gasket area
without any major build-up of vulcanising material
so that the inherent spaces within the gasket
section can continue to allow sufficient
An ES Rubber segment gasket with ‘anchoring’ feet and
patented soft corner using cavities produced by pins compressibility to create a waterproof seal without
[Photo: Dr W Grabe] putting excess stress on the surrounding concrete
of the segment. But, as VIP Polymers Technical and
Sales Director Steve Casey explained, the design and methodology is quite complex.

“It took over two years of development work to ensure that the vulcanising method provided a corner strength equal to
the extrusion,” said Casey. “Now we are ready we have applied for a patent for the development. It has already been
purchased for two major tunnelling projects that use cast-in gaskets – including the Shieldhall CSO tunnel in Glasgow.”

“VIP retains the experience and technical Leading manufacturers of gaskets for segmental tunnel linings include:
skills that it had when it was last in the Adeka (Japan & US)
market,” said Casey, who himself has 30 Arsan Kaucuk (Turkey)
years’ of experience in tunnel gaskets. “But, Cordes Tubes & Seals (from mid-2016, Germany)
unlike some manufacturers, we produce Dätwyler (Germany)
anchored gaskets to suit the actual angle of ES Rubber (Israel)
the adjoining joint gasket grooves, exactly, Fama (Italy)
using laser-guided cutting – rather than Hamilton Kent (Canada & US)
assuming 90 degrees will always suffice. Jiangyin Haida Rubber and Plastic (China)

He added: “This better suits trapezoidal Kantaflex (India)

segments. Within ISO 9001 approved quality Trelleborg (The Netherlands)

systems and Standard EN681-1 we also VIP-Polymers (UK)

develop and check rubber formulations –

including for water industry applications – to ensure that there is no microbiological degradation.”

Latest products
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13.07.2019 Modern seals for segment l n ng ntegr ty
Fama became the first Italian company to produce anchored segment gaskets with the first application in 2011 for the
TBM-bored Terna cable tunnel under the Messina Strait between Sicily and the mainland. Other Fama gaskets have been
used in tunnels for the Turin and Riyadh metros.

Although ES Rubber of Israel manufactures a range of anchored gaskets, the company’s current major supply contracts
are for the more conventional glued versions – to the KAT 3 contract of the Koralm high-speed railway tunnel project in
Austria; and for Line 3 of the Guadalajara Metro in Mexico. Two types of section are being supplied to the Koralm
Tunnel, depending on the expected groundwater pressures and ground types. The TunnelFlex 36 S, with a 36mm-wide
gasket base, is designed for pressures up to 6 bar in loose rock sections; with the shallower TunnelFlex 36 MIN for solid
crystalline rock zones. At the Guadalajara Metro the gaskets used are of the narrower TunnelFlex 33 G type, which are
20mm deep and have 90 degree soft corners to resist up to 2.6 bar of groundwater pressure.

Cordes Tubes & Seal (CTS) of Germany is moving into manufacturing tunnel segment gaskets – including the
hydrophilic, anchored and coextruded types. This follows more than 50 years in manufacturing seals for other tunnelling
applications – such as those for concrete jacking pipes, shafts, and 15 years of making seals for TBMs and for TBM
launch eyes (working with Herrenknecht and MSD). The company was also a distribution and site service partner for
Phoenix profiles. CTS has been carrying out performance tests and setting up production lines to commence the
manufacture of its segment gaskets by mid-2016, but CTS’s Andreas Diener reports that demand has led to the
company beginning manufacture early, in March (2016) under Managing Director Heiko Höft. The company is to supply
a water tunnel in Georgia that faces a working pressure of 10 bar, with gaskets tested by STUVA to 20 bar.

Hydrophilic
Strips of rubber can be modified, during manufacture, with a hydrophilic agent inserted to allow them to swell in the
presence of water. However, this material cannot be stored outside, or in a humid atmosphere, without the gasket
swelling ahead of being applied on the segments or installed into the lining.

The Dätwyler project reference list indicates that

coextruded gaskets with hydrophilic and non-
swelling elastomeric rubber material are particularly
popular for the Singapore Metro and for metro
tunnels in India. Similar profiles have been used for
rail tunnels and sewers in Switzerland, metro
tunnels in Moscow and Greece, for the Marmary-
Bosporus rail crossing in Turkey, as well as on the
SMART road and stormwater tunnel in Kuala
Lumpar, and on the NSBT highway tunnel in
Brisbane, Australia. Gaskets composed entirely of
hydrophilic material have been used, but to a much
lesser extent.

Other manufacturers of hydrophilic gaskets, and

designs incorporating a hydrophilic strip for added
security, include Haida, Trelleborg and VIP
Crates of ES Rubber gaskets awaiting use at the Koralm
Polymers. Projects supplied with Haida lining Tunnel casting plant
segment gaskets include the metro tunnels of
Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou in China, and for sewer tunnels in Korea.

High pressure
Although the above developments in segment sealing gaskets can be described as being chiefly manufacturer-led – to
improve performance – other developments are coming as a direct result of project design demands. As the trend
towards deeper and deeper tunnels increases, the associated higher groundwater pressures can only be withstood
through improved design of materials used for the tunnel lining – including segment gasket seals, and, for that matter,
the waterstops for in-situ concrete linings.

How do these demands affect gasket design? Tiedemann, of Dätwyler, said: “The gasket pressure rating depends on the
compound, size and shape of the internal structure of the gasket. The gasket is usually designed to a certain pressure
with a maximum gap and offset condition for a worst-case scenario. It depends as well on the maximum load deflection
force that is allowed in the specification, or requested by the contractors. All these factors impact the gasket
performance and sealing capacity.“

In recent years the maximum pressures that have to be resisted by tunnel linings, including their seals, have increased
greatly. Dätwyler has supplied gaskets with installed pressure ratings of up to 18 bar for Le Perthus railway tunnel
through the Pyrenees in Spain; of 15 bar for the Pajares rail tunnels, also in Spain; and of 16 bar for the Guarenas-
Guatire line tunnels of the Metro Caracas in Venezuela.

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13.07.2019 Modern seals for segment l n ng ntegr ty
VMT International Sales Manager Nod Clarke-Hackston
emphasised the importance of accurate mensuration to
achieve the low tolerances seen in many national
specifications. These have been determined, including those
for gasket housings in segments and moulds, from around
0.2mm to 0.5mm. Accuracy by manual measurement is a
complex task even for very skilled personnel. Production of
trapezoidal segments, with their lack of parallel edges, make
manual measurement a very lengthy or even impossible
process.

Use
of a

The range of gasket profiles to be available from

Cordes Tubes & Seals from mid-2016

laser tracker industrial measurement system (LIS) greatly Diagram of coextruded segment gasket in section
as installed (left) and in compression (right)
speeds the process while minimising human error. Clarke-
Hackston also said that 3-D measurement is the only way to discover distortions of originally intended mould
measurements as produced by torsional forces produced during transportation. Other likely aggravation factors include
temperature, which should be specified for the measurement location.

Recent projects that have benefited from a sophisticated quality control system, including laser mensuration systems,
include the Lee Tunnel at the Ridham precast works; and the Koralm Tunnel in Austria.

Author’s references
[1] Winterton, T R (inventor), C V Buchan Ltd (applicant), European Patent Application 95301933.8 from British Patent
GB 9405900 of 27/09/95

[2] Schurch, Marc, Basler & Hofmann Singapore: Small but important – gaskets for tunnel segments, International
Symposium on Underground Excavation & Tunnelling, Bangkok, Thailand, 2006

[3] Grabe, W (inventor), E Shemer Rubber Industries (patentee), European Patent EP 887 183 B1, European Patent
Bulletin 2008/26

[4] Grabe, W & Glany, S (inventors), Phoenix AG (patentee), European Patent 4824289 (and later patents)

References
Fama gaskets win ministry seal of approval – TunnelTalk, July 2015
Central Subway breakthrough – TunnelTalk, June 2014
ES Rubber seals the Gdansk under-river highway tunnel – TunnelTalk, April 2013
Trelleborg meets Baku Metro gasket design challenge – TunnelTalk, March 2014
Composite EPDM/hydrophilic gaskets for Bangalore Metro slurry drives – TunnelTalk, March 2014

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