Sheet piles replace diaphragm walls

In sand or clay soils sheet piles are a more environmentally friendly choice than diaphragm walls. Sheet piles can be extracted after use while a diaphragm wall will remain in the soil permanently and may interfere with future uses of the site. Diaphragm walls typically range in width from 500-1500mm sheet piles allow the site manager to work closer to the perimeter of the site. The excavation of trenches supported by bentonite slurry for installing the diaphragm walls is time consuming and also causes stress state changes in the subsoil and can induce settlements of neighboring constructions. The major disadvantage of a diaphragm wall is that it requires massive equipment long construction periods and substantial cost. We recommend sheet piles for excavations for up to 15meters and offers RF technology for those construction sites where vibrations are a concern. For complete ease of mind we provide vibration monitoring sensors to control the process.

Driving and extracting sheet piles with an vibratory hammer allows you to run a very clean construction site. The vibro completely eliminates the need for bentonite and allows for a dry working environment. A secondary derived benefit is that that all trucks leaving your site will not be coated in mud further reducing the water consumed during cleaning.

Diaphragm walls fill the trench with a low density material such as bentonite to prevent walls caving in. When full depth is achieved dense concrete is poured on top of the bentonite. The concrete displaces the slurry and causes the latter to overflow form the trench. This displaced bentonite slurry is then channeled to a recycling unit from which it can subsequently be re-used in a new section elsewhere on the construction site. After the foundation work is finished the bentonite has to be dried and disposed of properly. Stabilizing muds are a cheap and effective way but require careful planning. In practice the control and storage of slurry on site is a headache for the site manager and the construction site often turns into a muddy mess.

Where diaphragm walls are built without any permanent structural function they are costly and an environmental burden. In Europe many designers have therefore opted to use permanent steel sheet piles as they have obvious additional esthetic advantages and even though steel is more expensive material than concrete the installation cost is lower and makes sheet piling the most economically viable option. Where struts are needed to keep the pit open those used in sheet piles solutions can be quickly disassembled and reused while the concrete struts used for diaphragm walls must be cast in place and then broken up with a breaker drill causing noise and dust pollution while also producing a lot of construction rubble that needs to be trucked out again adding to the burden of the residents living in the vicinity of the construction site.

This article comes from ice-vibro edit released