The demand for innovative and cost-effective in-situ consolidation technologies in soft clay stimulated the effort to employ electrokinetic phenomena in soils under an electric field. This work explains the principles of electrophoresis and electroosmosis in soft clay under an electric field and discusses the implacations of these results for field implementation of the technique. The experimental work reported here was carried out to shed light on the principles by considering various influencing factors. The results show that there is a threshold current (about 15 mA) for electroosmosis and electrophoresis in soft clay. Below the threshold current, electrophoresis plays a major role and is accompanied by weak electroosmosis. The particle size, dry density, and boundary rise height of electrophoretic soil in anode chamber are mainly affected by soil moisture content, electrode in electrolyte length, and bottom of electrode to soil surface distance. The closer the soil moisture content is to the average value of the liquid limit and plastic limit, the denser the electrophoretic soil will be. Above the threshold current, almost only electroosmosis occurs. The greater the current, the greater the electroosmosis. In practical engineering application, electrodes are usually directly inserted into the soft clay. This results in the current usually being much greater than the threshold current, meaning the electrophoretic phenomenon in the soil can be negligible.
Keywords: Electroosmosis; Electrophoresis; Soft clay; Threshold current; Water content.
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