Deposition Behavior of Mud in Sand Beds Under the Effects of Organic Properties

Abstract

Mud transport in sand fractures has yielded a large body of information which is used to understand the sludge-ization of tidal flats, to improve the tidal flat environment, and to design artificial tidal flats. Over the past decades, studies of particle transport in saturated and unsaturated porous media provide a very clear understanding of the processes that govern particle transport. It has been reported that the particle transport and capture in porous media are significantly governed by hydraulic pressure gradient, porosity, and permeability distribution. The objective of this research is to present a study of mud transport in saturated sand beds, aiming to delineate the effects of the organic properties of mud on the general behavior of mud transport and deposition condition in pores. Laboratory experiments were undertaken to look into the effects of the organic properties. The experiments were conducted at a flow rate of 1.3 cm3/s. Many types of muds that have differences in the organic properties were injected into different sand beds at a concentration of 120 mg/L. It was observed that the deposition condition of mud in the beds was mostly due to the organic properties of mud. Mud containing high amounts of organic matter easily remained in sand beds. Furthermore, it was found that mud deposited in the pores as clusters rather than being separately adsorbed onto the surface of soil particles.