A field study on electroosmotic consolidation of hydraulic fill mud

Electroosmotic consolidation of soft clays has been studied in laboratory numerously, but is seldom used in field. In sea reclamation, dredging sludge as a filling material is widely applied to fill the foundation. These soft grounds is normally treated by preloading technique and vacuum preloading method. When the mud has a high content of clay, treatment effect of the above two methods is not ideal. The electroosmotic method has nothing to do with the soil particles that can effectively address the issue, so as the soft foundation for the reclamation works in the background, a 1400 m² test area of electroosmotic consolidation of hydraulic fill silt was settled for the field research. The paper describes the arrangement of electroosmotic test area, the electrode preparation, 15 days of testing process, the results and anlysis of detection. Results of electroosmotic consolidation showed that the maximum shear strength of silt increased 3 times and the maximum moisture content decreased by 20%. These results confirm that the property of hydraulic fill silt can be well improved by electroosmotic method. The research results may provide valuable references for similar engineering projects.