DRAINAGE TECHNIQUES FOR ELECTRO-OSMOSIS METHOD

Ruthvik R, P Shivananda

First semester student of Mtech (TEM) and Professor, School of civil engineering, Reva University Bangalore.

Abstract:

the dewatering of sludge in geotube is inefficient. In this paper, for improving dewatering efficiency and
laying a basis for the further study of large-scale electro-osmotic dewatering in geotube, electro osmosis
has been applied to silt dewatering experiments in small hangbag. By measuring the change of moisture
content, electricity current, voltage and comparing with other experiments under different conditions, the
following conclusions have been obtained: the electro-osmotic dewatering speed is much faster than the
natural dewatering. The non-woven fabric bag is easier to dewater than the high strength fabric bag which
is made by the company of Royal Tencate.

Keywords: Dewatering, electro osmosis, geotube, hangbag, sludge.

1. Introduction

Electro-osmotic flow (or electro-osmotic flow, often abbreviated) is the motion of liquid induced
by an applied potential across a porous material, capillary tube, membrane, micro channel, or any
other fluid conduit. Because electro-osmotic velocities are independent of conduit size, as long
as the electrical double layer is much smaller than the characteristic length scale of the channel,
electro-osmotic flow will have little effect. Electro-osmotic flow is most significant when in
small channels. Electro-osmotic flow is an essential component in chemical separation
techniques, notably capillary electrophoresis. Electro-osmotic flow can occur in natural
unfiltered water, as well as buffered solutions.

2. Literature review

CAO Ming-Jie, Ding Chun-Mei and Ren Ze-Dong (2015) : “Experimental Study of the Electro-
osmotic Dewatering in Hangbag” In this study they concluded that the effect of electro-osmotic
dewatering in hangbag. Base on the analysis of moisture content and water output, the results indicated
that the effect of dewatering for sludge by gravity is rather poor. But, the situation has become much
better after combining electro osmosis. The high strength fabric bag was easy to silt and cannot dewater
very well.

Yanfeng Zhuang, YunlanHuang, Feifei Liu, ZiyouLi, Weilie Zou: “Soft ground improvement by
electro osmosis “In this study they concluded that A novel geosynthetics, corrosion-proof EKG, was
developed. It is made from electric conductive polymer with two copper wires embedded. The EKG is in
a shape similar to PVD and has an electric conductivity of 103 -1·m-1. In order to improve the effect of
electro-osmotic consolidation, it is important to maintain as high as possible the mobility of ions in the
soil. For this purpose, polar reverse shall be carried out according to the trend of electric current variation.
A novel DC power source was designed to meet this requirement; the automatic polar reverse can be
realized by program. Application of EKG and DC source in the improvement of soft ground shows that it
took only 36 days to reduce water content of dredged sludge from 62% to 36%. And after electro-osmotic
consolidation the soft ground was improved from a fluid-like status to a bearing capacity of 70 kPa. It
would take 3 years for preloading consolidation to achieve the same effect for this specific case.

3. Electro-osmosis Method

In electro-osmotic method, two electrodes are driven into the saturated cohesive soil. When a current is
passed through the soil, the positively charged ions on the surface are attracted towards cathode. During
electro-osmosis process the attracted positively charged ions take the water of the double layer with them.

3.1 Electro-osmosis consolidation:

Electro-osmotic consolidation is mainly used in foundation treatment and there are lots of useful
achievements about electro osmosis. Russian scholars Reuss was found the charged clay particles
by experiments in 1809 and then the academic community had made many studies on electro-
osmotic consolidation and dewatering. Casagrande used electro-osmotic consolidation on the
foundation pit drainage and slope stability for the first time. With the development of world
economy, the request for the treatments of sludge and soft foundations or estuarine engineering
has become higher and higher.
3.1.1 Electro osmotic material:
The Material of Sludge: The sludge of these experiments was taken from the bottom
sediment of XuanWu Lake in Nanjing. The grain sizes of the silt are extremely fine, most
of them are finer than 0.05mm and the structure is very dense. The physical properties of
sludge as :The physical properties of sludge.

3.1.2 Experimental Method:

In experiment, the diameter of hangbag is about 400mm. The actual effective height of
the sludge in hangbag is about 400mm. the cathodes are placed along the wall of
hangbag. The anode is placed in the middle of hangbag. The value of voltage is 30V. The
experiment lasted for 94 hours, because the effect of electro-osmosis dewatering is not
obvious markedly in the late period of experiment. there are five feature points in the
different positions of sludge which are taken samples at different periods of experiment.
The points 1 to 3 are set in the surface of sludge. Point 1 is near the anode. Point 2 is near
the cathode. Point 3 is placed at the middle of the quarter circle. Point 4 and Point 5 are
placed below point 3. There are two parts of this test. The first part of the test is mainly
used to study the process and mechanism of sludge electro-osmosis dewatering by
electro-osmosis experiment in hangbag. The second part is mainly to set up comparative
experiments under different conditions.
The arrangement of the electrodes The distribution of feature points

3.2 Experimental study- Electro osmosis dewatering in hangbang:

The moisture content of three points in the sludge's surface declined with time and the
decline rate is decreasing with time. There are two reasons of the phenomenon , one of them
is with the electro-osmotic dewatering going on, the moisture content of sludge, the
resistance of sludge became higher and higher, especially for the area near the anode. On
the other hand, due to the shrinkage cracks near the anode caused by dehydration
consolidation and the electrochemical corrosion on the surface of anode, the interfacial
resistance between anode and sludge increases rapidly. The moisture content of point 2
is situated between point 1 and point 3. This result means that the wall of hangbag has
played the role of drainage boundary. The process of electroosmosis in hangbag can be
judged from the phenomenon. the positive hydration cations are separated from the
negatively charged soil particles and bring the water molecules moving by electric force.
The soil particles sank down under the force of gravity and the water is finally
concentrated to the surface of soil .
 The changes of moisture content with time at the surface of sludge.

The total current changes with time

The process of electro-osmosis dewatering

4. Conclusion: Electro-osmotic flow is most significant when in small channels. Electro-osmotic
flow is an essential component in chemical separation techniques, notably capillary
electrophoresis. Electro-osmotic flow can occur in natural unfiltered water, as well as buffered
solutions. Base on the analysis of moisture content and water output, the results indicated that the
effect of dewatering for sludge by gravity is rather poor. But, the situation has become much
better after combining electro osmosis. The high strength fabric bag was easy to silt and cannot
dewatering very well.

5. Reference:

CAO Ming-Jie, Ding Chun-Mei and Ren Ze-Dong (2015) : “Experimental Study of the Electro-
osmotic Dewatering in Hangbag” The Open Civil Engineering Journal, 2015

J. Fowler, “Dewatering sewage sludge with geotextile tubes,” GFR, 15(7), pp. 26-30, 1997.

Yanfeng Zhuang, YunlanHuang, Feifei Liu, ZiyouLi, Weilie Zou: “Soft ground improvement by
electro osmosis “Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072 P.R.China.