EXPERIMENTAL STUDIES ON THE DEWATERING PROCESS OF SLURRY FINE GRAINED SOILS IN GEOTEXTILE TUBES

Abstract

Geotextile tubs is an economical solution to encapsulate and solidify dredged-fine-grain materials with extremely high water content. It can be used in environmental remediation and land reclamation works. This study aims to investigate the overall dewatering behaviour of geotextile tube filled with fine-grain slurry in multiple cycles of filling and dewatering. A new semi-analytical model for geotextile tubes for dewatering has been developed based on mechanism of mass-volume balance of slurry, solid and water in-and-out of the tube at various infilling and dewatering stage. This model is able to predict the change of height of geotextile tube (and thus, its volume) and the solid content inside the tube with time. This model was validated by a series of laboratory-scale Modified-GDT tests and large-scale trials. A design procedure for field application of geotextile tube was proposed by using this new semi-analytical model, with the input parameters derived from the proposed laboratory M-GDT tests.