Effect of polyaniline coated galvanized steel electrodes on electrokinetic sedimentation of dredged mud slurries

An experimental study on electrokinetic improvement of dredged marine sediments to accelerate their sedimentation for land reclamation purposes is presented. Electrokinetic stabilization is currently used to improve soils, however, its use on soils with marine sediments with low permeability is still questionable due to the deterioration of anodes caused by electrolysis reaction. A number of traditional methods are employed in literature to reduce the corrosion degradation of metals, conducting polymers such as polyaniline is of engineering interest due to its properties such as ease of preparation and its high environmental stability. For this purpose, the anodes used herein is coated with polyaniline to investigate its effect on this method. Two series of experiments were performed using a polyaniline coated galvanized steel anode, and two series of experiments with non-coated galvanized steel anodes. Polyaniline coating increased the power consumption during the electrokinetic stabilization compared to the case where the same electric potential is applied using the uncoated electrodes. However, when 5 V electric potential is applied to the soil through the polyaniline coated anode, its settlement and electroosmotic permeability are equivalent to what was observed with 30 V electric potential applied through the non-coated anode, with 3 times less energy consumption.The accepted manuscript in pdf format is listed with the files at the bottom of this page. The presentation of the authors' names and (or) special characters in the title of the manuscript may differ slightly between what is listed on this page and what is listed in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript; that in the pdf file of the accepted manuscript is what was submitted by the author