loading page

Rheo-optical analysis of natural sediments under continuous and oscillating shearing action
  • Ahmad Shakeel,
  • Claire Chassagne,
  • Andy Manning
Ahmad Shakeel
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Rivers, Ports, Waterways and Dredging Engineering, Delft University of Technology, The Netherlands

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

Author Profile
Claire Chassagne
Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences, Department of Hydraulic Engineering, Environmental Fluid Mechanics, Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands
Author Profile
Andy Manning
HR Wallingford Ltd (Coasts & Oceans Group), The United Kingdom; School of Environmental Sciences, University of Hull, The United Kingdom
Author Profile

Abstract

A modified version of the commercially available RheOptiCAD® was developed to examine the conformational changes and break-up of flocs in clay suspensions in microscopic detail, under shearing action. In contrast to the RheOptiCAD®, our device aims to enable the structural observation of suspensions even when coagulation or settling of particles onto the bottom plate of the shear cell occurs. This challenge was met by using an upright modular microscope instead of an inverted one, equipped with a CMOS camera to record the structural evolution of samples as a function of shear. The verification of the design was done by analysing a model system of un-flocculated and flocculated kaolin suspensions. Additional experiments with natural clay (mud) suspensions were performed.