Techniques

Foundation/Drilled Shaft Construction

The drilled shaft industry places the highest demand on slurry performance of any drilling discipline. Fluids are simple by design yet are required to stabilize a wide range of very unstable soils. They accomplish this without affecting side or end load bearing properties. Baroid IDP has been a leader in providing products and technology since the drilled shaft industry's inception. One choice of drilling contractors is to use a bentonite based slurry. AQUAGEL® premium grade sodium bentonite, the industry standard, provides maximum solids for formation of a high quality thin wall cake in permeable zones and minimizes swelling of clay zones. There are numerous sources of inferior grade sodium bentonite as well as calcium bentonite being sold. However, AQUAGEL sodium bentonite can assure the drilled shaft contractor of receiving the highest purity and maximum hydratable solids of any bentonite available. QUIK-TROL® dry polyanionic cellulose can be added if the drilling conditions require additional filtration control, improved clay inhibition and a tighter, less permeable wall cake.

Grouting

Grouting is the process of placing an effective seal in a borehole. The sealing agents used are generally known as grouts. To be effective they must be easy to put in place and must have very low permeability to limit the migration of contaminants to the subsurface. Arguably the grouting and sealing of a borehole properly and effectively have the most to do with the health and safety of the users of a well or who are in the vicinity of an abandoned well.

Cementing

Geothermal

Water Well

Tunneling

Tunneling operations are another area where Baroid Industrial Drilling Products are used. Some tunneling operations use drilling fluid slurry in much the same manner as a conventional drilling operation; to remove cuttings from the drilling face and transport them away, stabilize the form ations being cut, and to cool and lubricate the cutting head. Other tunneling methods use the fluid only as a lubricating fluid to facilitate jacking product into place.

Sealing

Historically native clays have been used to provide earthen seals. Sodium bentonite clay, bentonite, has superior sealing qualities to native clays and can provide a better barrier to the movement of fresh water through soils. Sodium bentonite is a unique material. It has very low permeability and in the presence of fresh water, bentonite can swell. Depending on the quality of the bentonite and of the water, the bentonite will swell to several times its original size. To keep the bentonite in place and to form a matrix for the clay to swell against, the dry bentonite is mixed with the soil to be sealed and compacted

Slurry Walls

Slurry walls are non-structural barriers to impede ground water flow. They may be used to restrict movement of ground water to allow construction projects to proceed without having to install dewatering systems, or they are used as remediation tools to prevent or contain subsurface contaminant migration. Construction involves filling a narrow excavated trench with a low permeability stabilizing fluid. Bentonite fluids, a mixture of AQUAGEL® bentonite clay and water, are most common. The AQUAGEL slurry deposits a thin layer of bentonite on the excavation wall forming a low permeability filtercake and the hydraulic pressure exerted by the slurry helps stabilize the excavation. Additional products may be added to the fluid if additional stabilizing properties are needed.