Abstract: A method for installing expansion joints in concrete dams using a sealing device includes the steps of boring a hole in the dam intended for receiving the sealing device at a distance from water retained by the dam, installing the sealing device in the hole, and completing the expansion joint by cutting the dam on each side of the hole such that the hole communicates with the downstream side of the dam and with the water on the upstream side thereof. The cut is also made to communicate with the hole and thus with the sealing device. Second and third holes are bored before installing the sealing device in the first hole with the second and third holes overlapping on each side of the first hole. The sealing device comprises a tubular and elastic cell adapted to be inserted and installed in the first hole and includes reinforcements spaced from each other.

Abstract: A multiple trepan boring device for producing substantially large cuts in large works, such as concrete dams, comprises a drilling shaft adapted to be translationally displaced along its longitudinal axis and carrying a series of spaced apart cylindrical rotatable trepans each having a peripheral cutting surface and an annular cutting surface, the latter extending in plane perpendicular to the axis of the shaft and radially between the shaft and the peripheral cutting surface. Weights apply continuous downwards forces on the shaft and thus on the trepans. With the trepans resting on the top of the work to be cut, the trepans are rotated in place, and under the aforementioned forces the peripheral cutting surface of each trepan bores a hole until the shaft rests on the top of the work. Then the shaft is displaced translationally while the trepans continue to rotate thereby causing the annular cutting surfaces to remove a layer of the work extending between the shaft and the peripheral cutting surface.

Abstract: A sealing device for sealing an expansion joint cut in a concrete dam comprises a tubular cell made of an elastic material and provided at its upper and lower ends respectively with a rigid upper ferrule and a rigid and rounded lower ferrule. Cables are mounted between the upper and lower ferrules for preventing the longitudinal stretching of the cell. The cell includes two longitudinal reinforcements spaced one from another and disposed opposite the cut for preventing the radial deformation of the cell in the cut. A continuous peripheral space is defined on the cell between the lower ends of the reinforcements and the upper end of the lower ferrule to allow the cell to form a continuous peripheral seal against the walls of a hole bored along the expansion joint.

Abstract: An apparatus and a method to obtain continuous undisturbed sampling, by rotational boring in non-plastic granular tills. The designation of non-plastic granular till refers to a heterogeneous glacial deposit containing an unstratified and unsorted mixture of silt, sand, gravel, cobbles and boulders with no clay particles. In the geotechnical terminology, this material is generally classified as a gravely silty sand with variable percentage of cobbles and boulders (the non-cohesive matrix consisting of silt and sand). The apparatus comprises a string of drill rods having a core barrel and a new designed coring bit of preselected diameter secured at an end thereof. A drive rotates the drill rod at a predetermined rpm, dependent on the coring bit diameter, to impart rotation to the coring bit to penetrate the core barrel in the soil at a predetermined rate. The coring bit has a crown shaped drilling head having a plurality of fluid convection channels therein.