Skip to content

In 2015, Industrial Services of the Navy (SIMA) began to execute the work “Expansion and improvement of the services of the Naval Arsenal of the Navy of Peru – Phase 1A”, located in the naval base of Callao. The planned area where the construction of the shipyard, had water outcrops due to proximity of the water table to the surface, mainly due to the influence of Rimac River and during the high tide season. As a result, the soil became saturated, lost its resistance to shear and became an inadequate material for the foundation. On the other hand, the capillary effect caused the rise of water, the foundations of the different structures were moisten, and the steel corrosion is generate. In this context, the use of draining tanks as a subdrainage system was adopt in order to deplete water table and evacuate the captured flow towards the Pacific Ocean. The draining tanks allow transmitting the loads of the pavement to the ground without suffering deformations that impair its operation. In addition, these have an optimum hydraulic capacity to drive water. The methodology consisted in performing a groundwater modeling using Slide V.6.0 software of the Rocscience group in its Steady State Finite Element Analysis module in order to evaluate the amount of filtration that will enter the system due to the existing maximum phreatic level (high tide condition). According to the results, the solution alternative consisted in the use of double polypropylene drainage tanks, organized in an “L” shape, and compressive strength of 22 tons/m2. In summary, the application of the draining tanks in the project has allowed capturing, driving and evacuating the water collected in previously defined places. A greater drawdown of the existing groundwater levels was achieved, the reduction of the pore pressure and therefore a greater resistance to the compression of the soil.