The diffusion and sealing mechanisms of cement-sodium silicate grout (C-S grout), which is widely used in flowing water sealing projects, are complicated. Based on a large-scale quasi-three-dimensional simulation test platform of fracture dynamic water grouting, an orthogonal experiment of flowing-water sealing of C-S grout was performed. The grout was shown to diffuse in the form of an asymmetric ellipse. The flowing-water sealing process consists of three stages: (1) the grout diffuses to the fracture boundary in an asymmetrical ellipse; (2) the solidified body of grout develops; (3) the stable solidified body forms. The sealing efficiency was evaluated and graded by the reduction of water drainage through the fracture after grouting. Based on the test data, the factors that affect sealing efficiency can be listed in the following order from strong to weak: grout gel time, flowing water velocity, grout take, fracture plane width, and fracture aperture. Finally, a fitting equation was acquired to provide a reference for practical engineering applications.

In order to study permeation grouting reinforcement effect in the sand layer, a set of grouting test device is developed, which consists of a power device, a pressure‐bearing slurry tank, and several test frames. Compressive strength, deformation modulus, and permeability coefficient are selected to be the evaluation index of grouting reinforcement effect. Grouting reinforcement effect under different water‐cement ratio of cement slurry and curing time were measured. Eventually, under laboratory conditions, fitting formulas have been obtained which describe the quantitative relationship between reinforcement effect of permeation grouting and water‐cement ratio and curing time. Results show that water‐cement ratio of slurry has obvious effect on grouting reinforcement effect. Mechanical performance and impermeability of the grouted body are negative‐correlated with water‐cement ratio. There are two different destruction patterns for the grouted body in uniaxial compression process: global destruction pattern at low water‐cement ratio and local destruction pattern at high water‐cement ratio. If cement slurry at high water‐cement ratio is permeated into the sand layer, water bleeding phenomena will appear and lead to inhomogeneous performance of the grouted body, with lower performance in the upper part and higher performance in the lower part of the grouted body.

In this paper, ordinary Portland cement, ultrafine cement, polyurethane, and epoxy resin were selected as typical grouting materials. Grouting simulation tests were first conducted to prepare the grouted concrete crack sample. The effect of concrete crack parameters (i.e., crack aperture and roughness), grout water–cement ratio, and grouting pressure on the water-plugging performance of different grouting materials was explored through the impermeability test. The microstructure of grouted concrete cracks was analyzed by means of scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and computed tomography (CT), and the difference in water-plugging performance of different grouting materials was explained at the micro level. The results show that the impermeability of the four grouting materials was ranked as follows: Epoxy resin > polyurethane > ultra-fine cement > ordinary Portland cement. The concrete cracks grouted by epoxy resin have the highest plugging failure water pressure and the lowest permeability, which is the optimal grouting material. The effectiveness of crack grouting in water-plugging was directly proportional to the grouting pressure, provided the pressure did not exceed a certain value. When the pressure surpassed the threshold, the increase in pressure did not have a significant impact on the water plugging performance. For the two cement-based materials, the threshold pressure was 1 MPa, while for the other two chemical grouts, it was 2 MPa. The two cement-based grouts with a water–cement ratio of 0.8 showed optimal water-plugging performance. The water-plugging performance of ordinary Portland cement paste, ultra-fine cement pastes, and polyurethane grout was negatively correlated with crack aperture and positively correlated with crack roughness. However, the water-plugging performance of epoxy resin grout was not affected by crack aperture or roughness.