Evaluation of low-pressure compressibility and permeability of bentonite sediment from centrifugal consolidation data

Abstract This paper discusses application of centrifugal consolidation technique for evaluation of the low-pressure compression–permeability characteristics of mineral sludge. The evaluation is based on analysis of consolidation kinetics and ultimate compression of the sediment measured at various centrifugal accelerations. Dependencies of the volume fraction of particles φ , specific cake resistance α and compressibility coefficient C of the sludge versus solid compressive pressure p s were estimated and compared with those obtained from dead-end filtration experiments.