Measurement of the viscoelastic properties of water-saturated clay sediments.

• Main Author: Cohen, Steven Robert
• Other Authors: Wilson, O.B.
• Language: en_US
• Published: Monterey, California. Naval Postgraduate School 2014
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10945/40051

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited === The complex shear modulus of both kaolin-water and bentonite-water mixtures has been determined in the laboratory. The method involved measuring the reaction on a torsional elastic wave propagated down a metal rod when the rod was immersed in sediment. Observations were made over the frequency range two to forty-three kHz. Dispersed sediments behaved like Newtonian liquids. Undispersed sediments, however, were viscoelastic in character, and their shear moduli exhibited no dependence on frequency. For undispersed kaolin mixtures, a typical result is (21.6 + i 1.2) x 1,000 dynes per square centimeter at 32 percent concentration. In bentonite, a modulus of (4.6 + i 2.0) x 10,000 dynes per square centimeter at 19 percent concentration is representative.