Understanding the Influence of Rock Content on Streaming Potential Phenomenon of Soil–Rock Mixture: An Experimental Study

Abstract

To applicate streaming potential phenomenon to study the seepage feature in the soil–rock mixture (SRM), research on the variation in the streaming potential phenomenon of SRM is the precondition. This paper deals, in assistance with the streaming potential test apparatus, with the streaming potential effect response of SRM subjected to different rock contents. The test results show that when the rock content increases from 10% to 30%, the streaming potential coupling coefficient increases with the increases in rock content at 85% compactness and 0.01 mol L−1 salinity. When the rock content is more than 30%, the streaming potential coupling coefficient decreases with the increases in rock content. As the rock content increases, the permeability coefficient has a negative correlation with the streaming potential coupling coefficient. The streaming potential increases first and then goes down with the increases in rock content, and the streaming potential decreases significantly when the rock content exceeds 50%. The findings indicate that the rock content is the key structural factor that restricts the streaming potential phenomenon of the SRM.