Effect of permeable anode on electroosmotic consolidation using the horizontal electro-kinetic geosynthetics: analytical approach

The boundary at anode was generally assumed to be impermeable in previous work. However, the horizontal electro-kinetic geosynthetics are typically arranged at intervals, forming a permeable anode that allows pore water in original soil to flow through the gaps, which inevitably affects the consolidation process of electroosmotic layer. A one-dimensional analytical model for the coupled consolidation of original soil and electroosmotic layer is established to study this effect. The rationality of the one-dimensional model is justified by comparing the results of a two-dimensional model. To obtain the analytical solution, new dummy variables are proposed to homogenize the continuity conditions. The analytical solution is derived using the separate variable method and verified by existing analytical solutions and numerical results. Parametric analysis reveals that the consolidation time would be more significantly delayed in the thicker original soil. Both the permeability and compressibility of original soil influence the delayed effect on the consolidation of electroosmotic layer but the latter is more significant. For the equivalent thicknesses of original and electroosmotic layers, the time to reach 90% average degree of consolidation increases up to more than 6 times for the compression coefficient ratio of original and electroosmotic layers being equal to two.