Improvement of Pile Capacity in Marine Soil by Electrokinetics

This report serves as the progress report for the Final Year Project 2 entitled "Impovement of
Pile Capacity in Marine Soil by Electrokinetics". A brief introduction regarding the stabilization
of soil, electrokinetics and electrochemical are written. The methods of investigation involved
for the project are soil properties investigation (index and engineering properties), electrokinetic
treatments, pull-out test, as well as several main properties, i. e. the moisture content and pH.
Steel cylinder is used as the pile in this study. The treatment is done in a 76 x 41 x30 cm
treatment box that has two equivalent size compartments to run two treatments simultaneously.
The box is reinforced with L-shaped aluminium bars so that it will be able to sustain the weights
of the soil and surcharge applied. The experiment is divided into two main phases: consolidation
phase and treatment phase. In the consolidation phase, the steel cylinder is embedded into the
soil and weights are placed above the soil to consolidate the soil. This phase serves to simulate
the consolidated seabed in the marine condition. In treatment phase, the weights are taken off
and DC electric current is applied on the electrodes placed within and without the perimeter of
the steel cylinder. The treatment phase takes 7 days, and the treatment phase takes 14 days. Two
treatments are conducted. One treatment is with single polarity, and the other with polarity
reversal. In the treatment with polarity reversal, the first 7 days of the treatment phase will be
done with electrode configuration similar with the first treatment, and the polarity is reversed on
the eighth day for the second 7 days. Once the 21 days are up, the pullout test, the main
parameter studied and analyzed in this study, is conducted using Universal Testing Machine 5kN
to measure the pullout capacity of the pile. The result of the pull-out test and the vane shear test
shows increase in soil strength