Dynatite Seals Largest Immersion Tunnel

More than 35 years ago Beele Engineering started offering gastight penetrations for utility pipes, preventing gas explosions due to leaking gas inlets. The latest specialist sealing concerns the immersion tunnel near the South-Korean city of Busan that is being immersed by Mergor, a subsidiary of Strukton. The deepest element of this tunnel was placed recently at a depth of 50 metres.

The Geoje Fixed Link connects the second capital of South Korea, Busan, with the Geoje peninsula, reducing the travel time between the two from 2.5 hours to just 50 minutes. The tunnel is 3.2 kilometres long. For the watertight sealing of pipe penetrations the Dynatite system of Beele Engineering is used.

Prior to the field application, tests were carried out to determine the max. pressure load of this advanced sealing plug. The plug was tested under a pressure load of 1400 kg (14 kN). The pressure test was even continued with higher loads to determine the max. compression of the plug. Even at the extremely high pressure load of more than 18 kN (equalling a pressure of 27.5 bar) the profiling of the Dynatite plug hadn’t reached bulk modulus and thefore could be compressed even further.

The Dynatite system was developed for applications where a high degree of (instantaneous) tightness is required. The Dynatite plugs are compressible, can easily withstand shock pressure loads of more than 150 psi (10 bar) and will return to their original shape after shock pressure. The dynamic compression of the plug is based on the high-tech rubber grade and the engineered profiling.

(www.rise-nofirno.com)