Stuva revises gasket recommendations

27 November 2019


Germany – The research organisation Stuva has published an update to its gasket recommendations at its 2019 exposition and conference in Frankfurt. The document, ‘Recommendation for gasket frames in segmental tunnel linings’ combines two previous documents: ‘Testing and application of gasket frames in segmental linings (2005) and ‘Use of gaskets for sealing segmental linings’ (2006).

The two documents have been used by owners, manufacturers, designers and contractors, as well as testing institutes for the past 10 years to help select the “economically and technically optimal gasket profile based on comparable testing results for the individual application case”, according to Stuva. Recommendations were also provided for the production and installation of gasket frames in order to achieve high quality sealing.

With the new publication, these two guidelines are withdrawn.

Speaking to Tunnels and Tunnelling at Stuva 2019, Andreas Diener of CTS Cordes said, “The new recommendations are much more extensive and cover the experience that we have gained as an industry since the earlier publications. We took more time over this document and it has a lot more detail. As an example of a change, anchored gaskets are given more importance.”

Various experts collaborated on this new guidance, including gasket manufacturers, construction companies and consultants, as well as the Federal Highways Institute and the materials testing institute MPA Hannover. The leading organisation was Stuva.

Further analysis of the document will be available in a subsequent issue of Tunnels and Tunnelling.

The recommendation document can be downloaded here: 

https://www.stuva.de/en/publications/details.html?tx_news_pi1%5Bnews%5D=476&cHash=9980e1a3f08748ca4a8f1028e8ebbfd8