ELECTRO-OSMOSIS STUDIES ON KUTTANAD CLAY

Abstract

The Region of Kuttanad in the State of Kerala, India, is known as the rice bowl of Kerala. The region is famous for the black clayey silts and silty clays that it possess, which makes them quite suitable for agriculture. However this being a phenomenal area covering more than 1,100 sq km in the central Travancore region, is currently facing adverse issues following crop losses, infertility and settlement of structures. The presence of high water table also makes conveyance challenging for the residents of the area. Various ground improvement techniques using lime, rice husk ash, cement, coir etc have been studied on Kuttanad Soil. Electrokinetic Stabilization has not been much studied in this region. In this context, this paper presents a few results based on the Stabilization of Kuttanad Clay using Electro-Osmosis; done in the laboratory using two moulds (30 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm and 90 cm x 90 cm x 90 cm). Copper plates of uniform shape and size were used as electrodes and various voltage gradients were applied across the soil mass contained between the electrodes. The process of each experiment using a particular voltage gradient at a particular spacing of electrodes yielded unique results that can be compared with the other sets of experiments. The soil was tested properties before and after the test. It was observed that with reduction in spacing between electrodes and increase in potential gradient, the undrained shear strength for treated clay is high. However on a large scale, an increased potential gradient does not give a proportionate increase in strength