Sand Spreading on Clay Slurry with Jute Sheets

The layered clay-sand scheme of land reclamation involves the formation of thin sand seams sandwiched in between hydraulically placed marine clays. In a situation of scarce and expensive sand supply, it is desirable to :minimiz;e the losses of sand through penetration into the very soft clay slurry during the process of forming the horizontal sand seams. The factors that affect the efficacy of the jute layer in minimizing sand losses into a clay slurry are the height of drop of the sand through still water before hitting the jute interlayer, the intensity of sand spreading, the relative sizes of sand particles to the opening siz.e of the jute fabric, and the clay slurry strength. Experiments are conducted to examine the effects of each of these factors, and the results are verified by gamma-ray density profiling of the clay column before and after sand spreading. Results indicate that the key factors that control sand penetration are the relative sizes of sand particles to jute opening, the intensity of spreading, and the slurry strength