Chapter 1 Introduction

1. Introduction to Dredging Equipment

1. Introduction to Dredging Equipment .......................................................................... 1
1.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 1
1.2. Types of dredging equipment .............................................................................. 2
1.3. Mechanical dredgers ........................................................................................... 3
1.3.1. The bucket ladder dredge ................................................................................ 3
[Link]. General ........................................................................................................ 3
[Link]. Working method .......................................................................................... 5
[Link]. Area of application ...................................................................................... 6
1.3.2. Grab or Clamshell dredger .............................................................................. 7
[Link]. General ........................................................................................................ 7
[Link]. Working method .......................................................................................... 7
[Link]. Area of application ...................................................................................... 9
1.3.3. Hydraulic cranes (Backhoe and front shovel) ............................................... 10
[Link]. Working method ........................................................................................ 11
[Link]. Area of application .................................................................................... 12
1.4. Hydraulic dredgers ............................................................................................ 13
1.4.1. Plain suction dredger ..................................................................................... 13
[Link]. General ...................................................................................................... 13
[Link]. Working method ........................................................................................ 15
[Link]. Area of application .................................................................................... 16
1.4.2. Barge unloading dredger ............................................................................... 17
[Link]. General ...................................................................................................... 17
1.4.3. The cutter suction dredger ............................................................................. 18
[Link]. General ...................................................................................................... 18
[Link]. Working Method ....................................................................................... 19
[Link]. Applied working area ................................................................................ 21
1.4.4. The bucket wheel dredger ............................................................................. 22
1.4.5. Trailing Suction Hopper Dredger .................................................................. 23
[Link]. General ...................................................................................................... 23
[Link]. Working method ........................................................................................ 24
[Link]. Applied working area ................................................................................ 26
1.5. Conclusion......................................................................................................... 27

[Link]
Definition: A dredgers is a piece of equipment which can dig, transport and dump a
certain amount of under water laying soil in a certain time.

The quantity of soil moved per unit of time is called Production.

Dredgers can dig hydraulically or mechanically. Hydraulic digging make use of the
erosive working of a water flow. For instance, a water flow generated by a dredge
pump is lead via suction mouth over a sand bed. The flow will erode the sand bed and
forms a sand-water mixture before it enters the suction pipe. Hydraulic digging is

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Wb3408b Designing Dredging Equipment

mostly done with special water jets. Hydraulic digging is mostly done in cohesionless
soils such as silt, sand and gravel.
Mechanical digging by knives, teeth or cutting edges of dredging equipment is apply
to cohesive soils.
The transport of the dredged soil can be done hydraulically or mechanically too, ether
continuously or discontinuously.

Hydraulically Mechanically
Continuously Transport via pipeline Transport via conveyor
belts
Discontinuously Transport via grab, ship,
car

Deposition of soil can be done in simple ways fi by opening the grab, turning the
bucket or opening the bottom doors in a ship. Hydraulic deposition happens when the
mixture is flowing over the reclamation area. The sand will settle while the water
flows back to sea or river.
Dredging equipment can have these three functions integrated or separated.
The choice of the dredger for executing a dredging operation depends not only on the
above mentioned functions but also from other conditions such as the accessibility to
the site, weather and wave conditions, anchoring conditions, required accuracy and so
on.

1.2. Types of dredging equipment

Dredging equipment can be divided in Mechanical Dredgers and Hydraulic
Dredgers. The differences between these two types are the way that the soil is
excavated; either mechanical or hydraulic.

Mechanical dredgers are

Bucket ladder dredge Grab dredge

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 Chapter 1 Introduction

Dipper and backhoe dredge

Hydraulic dredgers are:

Cutter dredge
Plain suction dredge

Trailing suction hopper dredge

All dredgers except the trailing suction hopper dredgers are stationary dredgers,
which means that they are anchored by wires or (spud)poles.

1.3. Mechanical dredgers

1.3.1. The bucket ladder dredge

[Link]. General

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Wb3408b Designing Dredging Equipment

The bucket ladder dredge “Big Dalton”

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 U-
shape 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.

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 Chapter 1 Introduction

[Link]. Working method

The bucket ladder dredge is positioned on 6 wires. Under working conditions the
dredge swings around her bow anchor. The bow anchor line or headline can have
length longer than 1000 m. In order to avoid dragging of the wire over the soil, which
results in a smaller radius, the wire is supported by a headline pontoon. As a result of
this long headline the cut width can be large as well (200 m or more) . The sideline
winches take care of the swinging of the dredge as well as the power necessary for the
cutting process. The swing speed depends on the spoil condition, the layer thickness
cut and forward step (pawl length)

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Wb3408b Designing Dredging Equipment

Bow anchor

Headwire

Forward ground anchor PS

Headwire pontoon

Forward side anchor SB

"Pawl" length

Swing over

Aft ground anchor PS

Aft side anchor SB

Dry
excavation
Groundlevel

Dredge
profile Spillage

Cutwidth

Stern anchor

[Link]. Area of application

A bucket dredgers can be applied in almost all soils, from soft silt and clays to soft
rock depending on the power on and the strength of the bucket chain. They are use in
blasted rock as well.
The maximum dredging depth depends on the size of the dredger. Bucket ladder
dredgers with a maximum dredging depth of over the 30 m are built.
However for such dredgers the minimum dredging depth is almost 8 m.

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 Chapter 1 Introduction

Nowadays they are often used for dredging contaminated mud, because the can dig the
soil under in situ density conditions.
The bucket ladder dredge can not applied under offshore conditions and is certainly an
obstruction for shipping. Compared to hydraulic dredgers he production is rather low.

1.3.2. Grab or Clamshell dredger

[Link]. General
The grab 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 m3 up to 200 m3.
The opening of the grab is controlled by the closing and hoisting wire or by hydraulic
cylinders.

[Link]. Working method

For grab dredgers the method of anchoring and the positioning system plays an
important role for the effectiveness of the dredger.
At every pontoon position an area as wide as possible will be dredged. Looking from
the centerline the volume to be dredged at the position decreases with the angle to the
centerline.
The positioning is important to localize the bit of the grab. This helps the
dredge master to place the next bit after the fore going.
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Wb3408b Designing Dredging Equipment

Releasing the aft wires and pulling the fore wires does the movement of the pontoon.
When the dredgers have spud poles, this movement is done by a spud operation,
which is more accurate than executed by wires.

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Dredge pattern

The dredging process is discontinuously and cyclic.

1. Lowering of the grab to the bottom
2. Closing of the grab by pulling the hoisting wire
3. Hoisting starts when the bucket is complete closed
4. Swinging to the barge or hopper
5. Lowering the filled bucket into the barge or hopper
6. Opening the bucket by releasing the closing wire.

The principle of this hoisting operation is given in the figure below. In order to avoid
spinning of the clamshell a so-called taught wire is connected to the clamshell.

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 Chapter 1 Introduction

Hoist winch
Top shieves

Hoist wires

Gear segments Upper sheave block

Closing winch
Closing wires

Bucket

Gear segments Lower sheave block

[Link]. Area of application

The large grab dredgers are used for bulk dredging. While the smaller ones are mostly
used for special jobs, such as:
• Difficult accessible places in harbors
• Small quantities with strongly varying depth.
• Along quay walls where the soil is spoiled by wires and debris
• Borrowing sand and gravel in deep pits
• Etc.
The production of a grab depends strongly on the soil. Suitable materials are soft clay,
sand and gravel. Though, boulder clay is dredged as well by this type of dredger. In
soft soils light big grabs are used while in more cohesive soils heavy small grabs are
favorable.
The dredging depth depends only on the length of the wire on the winches.
However the accuracy decreases with depth.

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1.3.3. Hydraulic cranes (Backhoe and front shovel)

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.

Backhoe dredge

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 Chapter 1 Introduction

Front shovel

[Link]. Working method

During dredging the pontoon is lifted a few out of the water by wires running over the
spud poles. A part of the weight of the dredger is now transferred via the spuds to the
bottom, resulting a sufficient anchoring to deliver the required reaction for the digging
forces. Besides that the dredger is in this case less sensible for waves. The bucket is
placed and filled by hydraulic cylinders on the boom and the bucket arm.
Due to the small radius of the boom and arm is the cut width limited to 10 to 20 m,
see figure below.
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The effective dredging area depends on the swing angle and the forward step per
pontoon position. A small step results in a large width and a large step in a small
width, however the total area is almost the same.

[Link]. Area of application

This is roughly the same as for the clamshell dredgers with the exception
dredging depth over the 25 m

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 Chapter 1 Introduction

1.4. Hydraulic dredgers

1.4.1. Plain suction dredger

[Link]. General
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.

Types of plain suction dredgers

There are different types to be distinguished.

1. Barge Loading suction dredger

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