Mathematical and Numerical Modeling of 1-D and 2-D Consolidation

Abstract: A mathematical model for a consolidation process of a highlyconcentrated, flocculated suspension is developed.Thesuspension is treated as a mixture of a fluid and solidparticles by an Eulerian two-phase fluid model.W e characterizethe suspension by constitutive relations correlating thestresses, interaction forces, and inter-particle forces toconcentration and velocity gradients.This results in threeempirically determined material functions: a hystereticpermeability, a non-Newtonian viscosity and a non-reversibleparticle interaction pressure.P arameters in the models arefitted to experimental data.A simulation program using finite difference methods both intime and space is applied to one and two dimensional testcases.Numer ical experiments are performed to study the effectof different viscosity and permeability models. The effect ofshear on consolidation rate is studied and it is significantwhen the permeability hysteresis model is employed.