Acoustic Study of Suspension Sedimentation

Abstract

By means of an acoustic technique, we follow the time and space dependence of the concentration of a settling suspension composed of spherical glass beads in water. The concentration profile consists of two shock fronts, one at the top, one at the bottom of the sedimentation column. The velocity determination of these two fronts allows a precise analysis of how the settling velocity for suspension concentrations close to the packing vanishes.