Numerical Simulation of Deformation and Fluid Flow of Marine Sediment under Electro-Osmosis Consolidation

A numerical model to simulate the distributions of the voltage, deformation, and hydraulic head in a laboratory electro-osmosis test was developed. The governing equations are derived based on the principles of charge and mass conservations, equation of momentum equilibrium, the Darcy's law and the Ohm's law. An electro-osmotic test combined with vacuum drainage was conducted on the marine sediment in laboratory. The test was simulated with the numerical model, in which the nonlinearity caused by soil-water characteristic and mechanical constitutive was taken into account. The calculated distributions of voltage, current, settlement, pore water pressure, and drainage rate were consistent with the measured ones obtained from the test, illustrating the good performance of the proposed numerical model. The experimental and the numerical results also indicate the effectiveness of the electro-osmotic treatment for weak clays.