• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.22 no.9
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• pp.5-14
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• 2006

Generally, the sediments contain significant water, clay, colloidal fraction and contaminants, and can result in soft strata with high initial void, and its potential hazards in subsurface environments exist. Electrokinetic technique has been used in sedimentation for volume reduction of slurry tailing wastes and in remediation for extraction of contaminants from contaminated soils. In this research, the coupled effects of sedimentation and remediation of contaminated sediments are focused using electrokinetic sedimentation and remediation techniques from experimental aspects. A series of laboratory experiments including variable conditions such as initial solid content of the specimen, concentration level of the contaminant, and magnitude of applied voltage are performed with the contaminated sediment specimens mixed with ethylene glycol. Commercially available high specification Kaolin was used to simulate slurried sediment. From the test results, the settlement of specimen increases with increasing of applied voltage and decreasing of solid content and contamination level. The density of specimen increases due to settlement of specimen in the process of electrokinetic sedimentation and decreases due to extraction of organic contaminant in the process of electrokinetic remediation.