Evaluation of Various Electrode Configurations in Electro-Osmosis

Abstract

Electro-Osmosis technology is a proven stabilization technique on fine-grained soils. When an electric field is applied to a mass of soil, the pore fluid moves from the region of anode to cathode along with the positive ions that move towards the negative electrode; the net effect being reduced water content and improved strength near the region of anode. From an elementary study, it was established that copper and its alloys form the best electrode material for electro-osmosis and that a uniform increase of resistance in soil during the process increases the efficiency of the process. Usually, application of this technique on field does not follow any particular configuration of electrodes. In this study, different patterns of arrangement of a set of four electrodes were implemented to study the effects of each of the arrangement. It was found that a tetrahedral configuration using one central anode and three cathodes resulted in better drainage of water by 33% whereas that with a central cathode and three anodes resulted in better improvement of strength by 76%.