Fort Lupton, Colorado – NCFI’s TerraThane geotechnical foam has been used to repair a pumping station at one of Anadarko Petroleum’s hydrolic fracturing stations near Denver. An inlet line break allowed injection fluid to get under the concrete slab foundation, causing erosion that led to an uneven slab floor.
Rather than mudjacking the flour with concrete and aggregates, they contacted Pro Foundation Technology in Kansas City, Missouri, who suggested foamjacking it with lightweight geotechnical polyurethane foam, TerraThane, from NCFI instead.
“It’s a far superior method,” said Pro Foundation general foreman Steve Walker. Mudjacking is dirty, invasive and time-consuming, and the mud weighs 71 kg or more per cubic metre, compared to less than 24kg/m3 for the foam, which is cheaper and cleaner.
“We pump a two part liquid system through a narrow hose into a gun used to inject the geotechnical foam beneath the slab to fill any voids,” Walker said. “The foam expands, completely fills the empty space, raises the slab to level then cures in place to become highly durable and monolithic with the surrounding soil.”
The voids were located using radar equipment, small holes drilled into the slab, and foam injected through them. The process took seven hours, compared to the weeks or even months that mudjacking would have taken, and also helps prevent future erosion.
