Soil dewatering by electro-osmosis: a case-study problem

Soil dewatering by electro-osmosis: a case-study problem. The phenomenon of electroosmosis can be used for dewatering and consolidation of soils and mine tailing and waste ludges. The idea is that by appropriate placement of electrodes the flow can be diverted away from a contaminated site in a controlled fashion. In a reverse manner, a flow of a suitable chemical sealant can also be directed towards the spill site. Porous soils such as clays have a negative surface charge and hence the salt-bearing ground water flows from the anode to the cathode, thereby lowering the water table near the contaminated site. Simple models can be based on the equations presented in this chapter and models of increasing levels of complexity may be developed using a 2D or 3D geometry and a computational method such as finite-element analysis. The paper by Shapiro and Probstein (1993) is a starting source for this problem. Develop models based on the material in this chapter and other literature sources for simulation of such systems.