The effect of Calcium Chloride and Magnesium Hydroxide in Electro-Osmosis Process on Kaolinite Soil

Problems encounter by clay soil such as low permeability, high plasticity, low
strength and poor consolidation process has lead to large settlement of construction area
when load is applied on clay soil. To enhance the consolidation process and also in
order to strengthening the soil, electro-osmosis technique with chemical injection is
inspected in this project. Electro-osmosis is the application of direct or alternating
current through the soil that will generates dissipation of water despite in low
permeability soil such as clay. Injection of chemicals is to enhance clay properties in
term of strength. Improvement in clay strength is because of the cementation that take
place in clay soil. This cementation process is due to the reaction of dissolve clay ion
such as silicates and aluminates with dissolves calcium ion produced by chemicals.
Calcium Chloride, CaCl2 and Magnesium Hydroxide, Mg(OH)2 are used in this
experiment since both of these chemicals has shown an improvement in soil strength
due to cementation process. As regards to the results obtained, CaCl2 is a better
chemical solvent used in improving strength of kaolinite soil. Kaolinite soil that
recovered from Bidor, Perak is sample that is used for all tests including electroosmosis
test by using box and cylinder. Both of these tests are performed in order to
investigate the similarity of electro-osmosis effect by using different apparatus. The
shear strength and moisture content test is also conducted for analysis purposes in term
of strength of kaolinite soil and amount of water dissipation after electro-osmosis
process. Current value is also measured in this project for analysis of the relation
between strength of kaolinite soil and current. For this analysis, different voltage is
applied and voltages used are 30 Volts and 100 Volts. From the observation, high
voltage will effect the increasing in current value. High current value will cause
increased in temperature and increasing the dissipation of water.