Civil Engineering
Sodium Bentonite is traditionally used as a support and lubricating agent in walls, foundations, tunneling and horizontal drilling. Bentonite slurry walls are used in construction, where the slurry wall is a trench filled with a thick colloidal mixture of Bentonite and water. A trench that would collapse due to the hydraulic pressure in the surrounding soil does not collapse as the slurry balances the hydraulic pressure. Forms of concrete and rebar, can be assembled in slurry filled trench, and then have concrete poured into the form. The liquid concrete is heavier than the Bentonite slurry, and displaces it, and it can be re-used in a new trench elsewhere on the construction site.
The Important characteristics of Piling Grade Bentonite are covers large surface area, good plasticity and lubricity, low filter loss, excellent gel strength, good impermeability & low compressibility.