Slurry Wall

Slurry Walls
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Slurry-Wall Construction
• Placement of a viscous fluid in a narrow

trench type excavation to prevent caving.
• Used for oil well and soil exploration drilling
to maintain uncased boreholes.
• Large hydrostatic pressure from slurry
above can stabilize soil walls at great depth.
• Mix of bentonite, water and suitable
additives.
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• Walls constructed in excavations where

slurry maintains the excavation termed as
slurry, diaphragm slurry or diaphragm
walls.
• Figure: method of construction of slurry
wall.
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1. Piles driven at spacing and alternate

sections excavated with slurry added to
keep cavity full as excavation proceeds.
2. Cavity maintained full and agitated (without
causing caving) for uniform density.
3. Reinforcements placed and concrete placed
by tremie pipe to fill the trench from
bottom-up(ensures a solid wall).
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4. Displaced slurry collected in slurry pit for

use in next section of excavation.
5. Pipe piles can be pulled after first wall
sections are formed and partially cured or
left in place.
Disposal of slurry is a disadvantage for this
type of construction.
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Slurry-Wall
• Piles are for providing water-tightness and

continuity between sections.
• Piles can be of full wall width or a fraction
as well.
• If depth is too great for piles to self-support
lateral pressure, walls can be braced or tie
backs used.
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Soil-Cement Slurry-Wall
• Sometimes, Soil-Cement-Slurry are used
instead of concrete resulting in a Soil-Cement
Mixed Wall (SMW).
• Wide flange sections can be inserted to freshly
placed SMW sections for reinforcement.
• Width varies from 1.8 m to 6m and upto 61m in
depth.
• Less slurry to be disposed at the end of project.
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Slurry-Wall
• Twice as expensive as sheet-piling or soldier
beams.
• Used only when ground loss must be kept to
near zero and walls can be used as part of
permanent construction.
• Better impermeability than sheet-piling when
used as waste barriers.
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Slurry-Wall
• Open trenches later filled with clay or lean
concrete to act as cutoff walls and to confine
hazardous wastes are called as slurry
trenches.
• Concrete walls constructed using slurry
method can use wale and strut or tiebacks for
additional support against lateral
movements.
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Slurry construction depends on two factors
for successful performance.
1. Formation of a filter skin or “cake” about
3mm thick at interface of slurry and
excavation via gel action and particulate
precipitation.
2. Stabilization of lateral pressure due to dense
slurry pushing against filter skin and
sidewalls of excavation.
Walls usually stable with slurry pressure of 65 to 80% of active
soil pressure.
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• Slurry should be viscous enough so that it
drain out through the side of excavation.
• If filter skin forms reasonably well,
exfiltration loss will be minimal.
• Slurry construction can be used for all types
of soil
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• When soil is loose, or gravelly, it must be
grouted to obtain some stability before
constructing slurry wall.
• Cement and finely ground slag can be used as
admixtures to increase ρ.
• Polymers are now being used, but expensive
though it can be reused.
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• Common slurry densities are 1.15 to
1.25g/cm3 and a dispersing agent to avoid
formation of flocs.
• Slurry mixture is a trial process in laboratory
where water, clay and admixtures are mixed
by trial until a slurry with desired density is
obtained.
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• In
use, it is necessary to check the slurry
density at a regular interval or to agitate.
• For a clay excavation without slurry, the
critical depth is.
H =
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Slurry wall stability analysis n- Cohesive
Soil
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• With
slurry in trench and GWT at the ground
surface, a horizontal force summation of
undrained condition gives;
•
• Solving for depth H;
H=
depth of excavation can be made larger by increasing the
density of the slurry
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Cohesionless soil
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Cohesionless soil
• In
cohesionless soil, the slurry density is
obtained with groundwater table near the
surface.
• Ki - = 0
From which, we have slurry unit weight as
Ka KiK0
Ki = horizontal dynamic soil springs.
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• Filter skin or cake that forms at the soil-
slurry interface add stability to trench.
• Predicting this effect is not truly reliable.
• A safety factor introduced to compensate
this.
• To ensure skin formation, slurry head
should be;
– 1m above GWT in cohesive soils and
– 1.5 m above GWT for granular soils.
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example
Show the effect of slurry density on
excavation depth H in a cohesive soil and
using a safety factor of 1.5.
Su = 35 kN/mm2 and Υs = 18.2 kN/m3
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solution
•Using
equation - to form different heights for
different slurry densities.
=
Using this following table can be formed.
ρslurry H
g/cm
3 m
1.10 12.60
1.2 14.52
1.30 17.14
1.40 20.91
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Slurry Wall

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Slurry Walls

• Placement of a viscous fluid in a narrow

• Walls constructed in excavations where

1. Piles driven at spacing and alternate

4. Displaced slurry collected in slurry pit for

• Piles are for providing water-tightness and

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