Measurement of heat flow through the sediments mass by thermal flux method

The dredging process can be described as the unearthing of sediments from the bed of a reservoir, sea, lake, or river and the hauling of these sediments to the dumping site. To determine the suitability of dredged material for beneficial uses, a detailed investigation has to be performed on dredged sediments. It is important to note that silt and clay are the most common types of sediments that are encountered during the dredging operation. These materials are quite tricky for application in civil engineering purposes as they have high moisture-holding capacity and it becomes difficult to remove them naturally, especially in the case of clayey soils, which are highly compressible when subjected to loading. To have effective utilization of sediments (clayey or silty or sandy) for civil engineering applications, suitable techniques need to be developed for dewatering the sediments as per the application needs and their subsequent strengthening is essential. In this study, a methodology called Thermal Flux Method (TFM) is developed to measure the rate of flow of heat through the sediment stack in a specified amount of time. The advantage of this method over the conventional method is that it is highly accurate in estimating the moisture content reduction in the sediment stack by measuring the thermal conductivity in a specific amount of time. Furthermore, the results obtained from the TFM model are validated with a mathematical model developed using ANSYS 13.0 software. It is evident from the ANSYS results that the TFM model can be effectively used in the measurement of the rate of flow of heat through the sediment stack.