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Flocculation and particle size analysis of expansive clay sediments affected by biological, chemical, and hydrodynamic factors

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Abstract

Expansive clay sediments are abundant in riverine and estuarine waters and bottom beds, and their particle size distributions (PSD) are important for the analysis of sediment transport. This paper presents an experimental study to evaluate, using a laser particle size analyzer under varying flow conditions, the intrinsic PSD of two expansive clays, a Ca- and a Na-montmorillonite and the influence of biological, chemical, and hydrodynamic factors on their flocculation and PSD. The considered biological factor consists of three extracellular polymeric substances of varying polarity, including xanthan gum, guar gum, and chitosan; the chemical factor is the salinity; and the hydrodynamic factor is the types of flow indicated by the Reynolds number and shear rate. The intrinsic PSD of both clays show a multimodal lognormal distribution with sizes ranging from 0.2 to 50 μm. All three biopolymers, xanthan gum, guar gum, and chitosan, can facilitate flocculation through long-range polymer bridging and short-range ion-dipole interaction, hydrogen bonding, and Coulomb force. The influence of salinity is different for the two clays: the particle size of the Na-montmorillonite increases with salinity, which is caused by flocculation resulting from the suppressed electrical double layer, while that of the Ca-montmorillonite is slightly reduced owing to the decreased basal spacing and cation exchange. For different hydrodynamic conditions, higher shear rate promotes the flocculation of Ca-montmorillonite, but breaks the Na-montmorillonite flocs. The significance of understanding the flocculation and PSD of expansive clays is also discussed in terms of sediment transport under different aquatic environments.

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Acknowledgements

This work was partially supported by the Office of Naval Research (award no. N00173-10-1-G013) under program element number 0601153N. GZ was partially supported by the Overseas Collaboration Award of NSFC (grant no. 51128901). XT received the LSU Graduate School Economic Development Assistantship and a Supplement Award. The facilities used in this study were purchased using the fund from the Louisiana Board of Regents Enhancement Program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA, 70803, USA

    Xiaoling Tan & Guoping Zhang

  2. State Key Laboratory of Hydro-Science & Engineering, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Liming Hu

  3. Naval Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, MS, 39529, USA

    Allen H. Reed & Yoko Furukawa

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  1. Xiaoling Tan
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  2. Liming Hu
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  3. Allen H. Reed
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  4. Yoko Furukawa
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Correspondence to Guoping Zhang.

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Responsible Editor: Qing He

This article is part of the Topical Collection on the 11th International Conference on Cohesive Sediment Transport

Notations

D 0

Internal diameter of pipe

D

Mean diameter of all flocs and particles within a given size range

D A

Impeller diameter

ε 0

Permittivity of vacuum

ε

Dielectric constant

\( \overline{\varepsilon} \)

Average turbulent energy dissipation per unit time and mass

f

Friction factor

G

Average shear rate

k

Boltzmann constant

l

Diameter of a particle or floc

n

Number of particles at a fixed size

n j

Mean concentration of the jth ion species

N p

Power number of stirrer

Ω

Angular velocity of impeller in the stirring bath of PSA

ρ

Fluid density

q j

Valence of the jth ion species

Q

Flow rate in pipe

R 0

Internal radius of pipe

R e

Reynolds number

t D

Debye length

T

Absolute temperature

μ

Fluid dynamic viscosity

v 0

Mean flow velocity in pipe

v

Kinematic viscosity of the liquid

V

Volume of the stirring bath of PSA

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Tan, X., Hu, L., Reed, A.H. et al. Flocculation and particle size analysis of expansive clay sediments affected by biological, chemical, and hydrodynamic factors. Ocean Dynamics 64, 143–157 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10236-013-0664-7

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