The use of polymer slurry as an economic and sustainable way to build diaphragm walls – A case study of a construction work in São Paulo/Brazil

Resumo

The Civil Construction Industry is one of the first economic sectors to react to the stimuli of favorable economic conditions of a country. In such a scenario, new tools of management and reuse of the solid waste from building sites have been extensively discussed in technical meetings. In this paper a case study is described about a building work located in the city of São Paulo, Brazil where a polymer slurry was used as drilling mud for excavation work of diaphragm walls, instead of bentonite slurry. Based on the data evaluated during the study of the mentioned case, it was possible to conclude that the use of polymer slurry in the excavation of the diaphragm wall is not only technically as well as it is economically feasible, besides presenting several environmental advantages when compared to the bentonite slurry