ABSTRACT
The phenomenon of settling of suspended fines is one which is common to natural processes in soil sedimentation such as the initial stages for formation of sedimentary soils, and management of tailings discharge from mineral resource industries. The fines concentration in a soil suspension problem, or as initially discharged from extraction/process plant, is considered to be very dilute – generally of the order of 1 to 3% by weight. The simplest procedure for description of the total settling/sedimentation and consolidation process of the fines suspension is to trace the ‘life’ or status of a typical representative fines particle, beginning with its initial state. Interparticle forces developed at this stage behave in a manner akin to dispersive forces. Compatibility requirements between analytical and physical models demand that one can define a proper and realistic initial condition. The classical format for solution using the standard Terzaghi consolidation formulation restricts the successful application of the standard model to problems concerned with infinitesimal strain.
