Rheology of Mud: An Overview for Ports and Waterways Applications

Mud, a cohesive material, consists of water, clay minerals, sand, silt and small quantities of organic matter (i.e., biopolymers). Amongst the different mud layers formed by human or natural activities, the fluid mud layer found on top of all the others is quite important from navigational point of view in ports and waterways. Rheological properties of fluid mud layers play an important role in navigation through fluid mud and in fluid mud transport. However, the rheological properties of mud are known to vary as a function of sampling location within a port, sampling depth and sampling location across the globe. Therefore, this variability in rheological fingerprint of mud requires a detailed and systematic analysis. This chapter presents two different sampling techniques and the measured rheological properties of mud, obtained from laboratory experiments. The six protocols used to measure the yield stresses are detailed and compared. Furthermore, the empirical or semi-empirical models that are commonly used to fit rheological experimental data of such systems are presented. The influence of different factors such as density and organic matter content on the rheological behavior of mud is discussed. The fluidic yield stress of mud samples was observed to vary from 0.2 Pa to 500 Pa as a function of density and organic matter content.

PRELIMINARY STUDY ON PLASTICINE AS A SUBSTITUTE COHESIVE MATERIAL FOR GEOTECHNICAL PHYSICAL SOIL MODELING

<p>Plasticine is an artificial material made from solids such as gypsum, lime, mixed with petroleum jelly or micro wax and acid fat. The properties of plasticine are likely similar to natural clay and is influenced by oil content. The information about mechanical properties of plasticine is still very rare, and as such the study on it is riquired and must be conducted intensively. The preliminary laboratory study has been conducted to understand the behaviour of plasticines. Microwax and petroleum jelly based plasticines were utilised with the variation of oil content, whereas kaolin clay with the variation of water content is utilised as a reference material. The study is focusing on the stress-strain behaviour for both microwax and petroleum jelly based plasticines compared to the stress-strain behaviour of kaolin clay. This paper reports the result of preliminary investigation regarding the use of plasticine as an alternative artificial material for substitution of clay in soil modeling. Some engineering properties from unconfined compression strength (UCS) test and hand penetrometer are shown. The result indicates that the stress-strain behaviour of plasticine resembles the stress-strain behaviour of kaolin clay. The plasticine is suitable as a substitute cohesive material and it has a potential to be utilised for geotechnical material modelling in the future.</p>

New Analog Experiment for Convergent Regime an example of planet Mercury

&lt;div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;div&gt; &lt;p&gt;We conduct a series of experiments to understand the nature of thrust faulting as a result of global thermal contraction in planetary bodies such as Mercury. The spatial scales and patterns of faulting due to contraction are still not very well understood. However, the problem is complicated even for the homogeneous case where the crustal thickness and material properties do not vary spatially. Previous research showed that the thrust faulting patterns are non-random and are arranged in long systems. This is probably due to the regional-scale stress patterns interacting with each other, leading to the creation of coherent structures. We first conduct 1-Axis experiments where we simulate the contraction of the substratum using an elastic ribbon. On top of this we place the material for which the friction, cohesion and thickness can be controlled for each experiment. The shared interface between the frictional-cohesive material and the shortening elastic substratum dictates undulations and finally the generation of slip planes in the upper layer. We discuss the spatial distribution of these patterns spatially. We then speculate the interaction of such patterns on a 2D plane.&lt;/p&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;&lt;div&gt; &lt;div&gt;&amp;#160;&lt;/div&gt; &lt;/div&gt;

Effect of thermal boundary conditions on the response of thermally-activated floating piles in a cohesive material

The application of thermally-activated foundations has received significant attention in the last decade with a number of large- and small-scale tests having been undertaken. Alongside these physical studies, a number of investigations utilising numerical analysis have been undertaken. The majority of analyses are transient with durations from a few hours up to 10 years. A broad range of thermal boundary and initial conditions have been applied in these analyses, and only a limited number of studies have explicitly considered the surface boundary imposed by an overlying structure, let alone considered what effect variations in the operational temperatures of the structure might have on the foundations. The work presented in this paper had the objective of systematically examining these assumptions and the effect they have on the predicted response of a thermally-activated pile foundation, and if important, which is the most appropriate set of conditions to use.