Consolidation Characteristics of Dredging Slurries

Abstract

With the population growth and the industrial development of a given region, the sediments dredged from the harbors and channels have become increasingly polluted. As an alternative to open water disposal, many of these dredgings are deposited behind dikes in areas near harbors; although more expensive than open water disposal, this latter scheme has been found to satisfactorily prevent the polluted sediment from reaching the open waters. Since dredging wastes usually contain a substantial amount of clay-like, or organic materials or both, with high water content, the effectiveness and economy of associated landfill operations are strongly related to the consolidation characteristics of the dredging slurries. In this work, special equipment is used to consolidate several typical dredging slurries that are too soft, or too fluid or both, to test by conventional means, and the resulting data are analyzed.