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A slurry wall is a
civil engineering Civil engineering is a professional engineering discipline that deals with the design, construction, and maintenance of the physical and naturally built environment, including public works such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, airports, sewa ...
technique used to build
reinforced concrete Reinforced concrete (RC), also called reinforced cement concrete (RCC) and ferroconcrete, is a composite material in which concrete's relatively low ultimate tensile strength, tensile strength and ductility are compensated for by the inclusion ...
walls in areas of soft earth close to open water, or with a high
groundwater Groundwater is the water present beneath Earth's surface in rock and Pore space in soil, soil pore spaces and in the fractures of stratum, rock formations. About 30 percent of all readily available freshwater in the world is groundwater. A unit ...
table. This technique is typically used to build diaphragm (water-blocking) walls surrounding
tunnel A tunnel is an underground passageway, dug through surrounding soil, earth or rock, and enclosed except for the entrance and exit, commonly at each end. A pipeline is not a tunnel, though some recent tunnels have used immersed tube cons ...
s and open cuts, and to lay foundations.


Construction

While a trench is being excavated to create a form for a wall, it is simultaneously filled with
slurry A slurry is a mixture of denser solids suspended in liquid, usually water. The most common use of slurry is as a means of transporting solids or separating minerals, the liquid being a carrier that is pumped on a device such as a centrifugal p ...
(usually a mixture of
bentonite Bentonite () is an absorbent swelling clay consisting mostly of montmorillonite (a type of smectite) which can either be Na-montmorillonite or Ca-montmorillonite. Na-montmorillonite has a considerably greater swelling capacity than Ca-m ...
and water). The dense but liquid slurry prevents the trench from collapsing by providing outward pressure, which balances the inward hydraulic forces and also retards water flow into the trench. The density of the slurry mix must be carefully monitored and adjusted to produce the correct outward pressure to prevent the trench walls from collapsing. Slurry walls are typically constructed by starting with a set of concrete guide walls, typically deep and thick. The guide walls are constructed near the ground surface to outline the desired slurry trench, and to guide the excavation machinery. Excavation is done using a special clamshell-shaped digger or a hydromill trench cutter, suspended from a crane. The excavator digs down to design depth (or bedrock) for the first wall segment. The excavator is then lifted and moved along the trench guide walls to continue the trench with successive cuts as needed. The trench is at all times kept filled with slurry to prevent its collapse, but the liquid filling allows the excavation machinery and excavation spoil to be moved without hindrance. Once a particular length of trench is reached, a reinforcing cage is lowered into the slurry-filled pit and the pit is filled with
concrete Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...
from the bottom up using tremie pipes. The heavier concrete displaces the bentonite slurry, which is pumped out, filtered, and stored in tanks for use in the next wall segment, or it is recycled. Slurry walls are successively extended to enclose an area, blocking water and softened earth from flowing into it. Once the concrete has hardened, excavation within the now concrete-wall-enclosed area can proceed. To prevent the concrete wall from collapsing into the newly excavated area, temporary supports such as tiebacks or internal crossbeams are installed. When completed, the structure built within the walled-off area supports the wall, so that tiebacks or other temporary bracing may be optionally removed.


History

The slurry wall technique was first introduced in the
1950s The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the "Fifties" or the " '50s") (among other variants) was a decade that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959. Throughout the decade, the world continued its re ...
during the excavations of the Red Line of the
Milan Metro The Milan Metro ( it, Metropolitana di Milano) is the rapid transit system serving Milan, Italy, operated by Azienda Trasporti Milanesi. The network consists of 5 lines, identified by different numbers and colours, with a total network length ...
in
Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...
by the company ICOS (Impresa Costruzioni Opere Specializzate). This new technology became an important component of the top-down tunnelling method also known as ''Metodo Milano'' ("Milan method"). Slurry wall construction was used to construct the "bathtub" that surrounded the foundations of most of the
World Trade Center site The World Trade Center site, often referred to as "Ground Zero" or "the Pile" immediately after the September 11 attacks, is a 14.6-acre (5.9 ha) area in Lower Manhattan in New York City. The site is bounded by Vesey Street to the north ...
in New York City. In the 1980s, the
Red Line Northwest Extension The Red Line is a rapid transit line operated by the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority (MBTA) as part of the MBTA subway system. The line runs south and east underground from Alewife station in North Cambridge through Somerville and C ...
project in Boston was one of the first projects in the US to use the modern form of the technology, with hydromill trench cutters and the "Milan method". Slurry walls were also used extensively in Boston's later
Big Dig The Central Artery/Tunnel Project (CA/T Project), commonly known as the Big Dig, was a megaproject in Boston that rerouted the Central Artery of Interstate 93 (I-93), the chief highway through the heart of the city, into the 1.5-mile (2.4&n ...
tunnel project.


Design

The design of a slurry wall (diaphragm wall) includes the design of wall thickness and reinforcements. Thickness of a slurry wall in preliminary design is generally set to about 4-8% of the excavation depth. Slurry wall design is undertaken based on
bending moment In solid mechanics, a bending moment is the reaction induced in a structural element when an external force or moment is applied to the element, causing the element to bend. The most common or simplest structural element subjected to bending mo ...
and shear envelope obtained from the stress analysis. In the design of such underground walls, width of the unit is considered as one meter, and the wall is analyzed under plane strain condition. Since the length-to-width ratio of excavations is generally large, plane strain conditions can be assumed. In a single-phase diaphragm wall, also known as a "cut-off wall", a binder (usually cement) is added to the supporting fluid so that the supporting fluid hardens without exchange. One application for this type of construction is a
landfill A landfill site, also known as a tip, dump, rubbish dump, garbage dump, or dumping ground, is a site for the disposal of waste materials. Landfill is the oldest and most common form of waste disposal, although the systematic burial of the wast ...
seal that is to be retrofitted later.


See also

*
Retaining wall Retaining walls are relatively rigid walls used for supporting soil laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to ...
* Building of the World Trade Center *
Grout curtain A grout curtain is a barrier that protects the foundation of a dam from seepage and can be made during initial construction or during repair. Additionally, they can be used to strengthen foundations and contain spills. Characteristics A grout curt ...


References


External links


Slurry Wall Construction by Diaphragm MachineVideo Overview of Slurry Wall ConstructionA technical resource for slurry wall construction, slurry trenches and cut-off walls
* ttp://books.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=5539&page=133 Barrier technologies for environmental managementbr>Pictures of slurry walls«"Lakhta Center". Diaphragm wall»
{{Authority control Geotechnical shoring structures Types of wall