Effects of Container Diameter and Volume Fraction on the Sedimentation Process of Flocculated Clay Suspensions

We studied the dependence of sedimentation process in a flocculated kaolinite suspension on the diameter of cylindrical container in the measurement and volume fraction of clay in the suspension. The obtained results were as follows. The constant velocity in the slow settling process depends on the container diameter. In large containers (D=21.3, 28.2, 63.5 mm), it becomes lager as the container diameter increase. This phenomenon can be explained on the basis of a theory focusing on wall stress. However, there exists hardly difference in settling velocity among the small containers (D