Impact of Sodium Tripolyphosphate on the Rheological Properties of Dams Sediments and Friction Factor during Hydraulic Dredging of Dams

Abstract

The transporting of sediments across watershed systems and their placement in reservoirs causes expensive issues for the operators of dams in many different nations throughout the world. In addition to the reservoir's functional capacity steadily decreasing as sediment settles in it, silt removal is a sensitive and challenging process that frequently necessitates taking the reservoir out of service, which is practically unachievable in dry and semi-arid regions. De-silting by hydraulic dredging has recently become a necessity to increase their longevity. But during this operation there are load loss exists so it is necessary to find solutions to reduce it. The present paper revealed that use the Sodium Tripolyphosphate as a reducing agent of the friction factor during the hydraulic dredging of dams. To carry out this study, a rheumatic characterization of dams sediments and dams sediments -sodium tripolyphosphate mixtures was carried out using a torque controlled rheometer (Discovery Hybrid Rheometer DHR2 from TA instrument). The flow curves as a function of dose of sodium tripolyphosphate added to dam sediments were analysed by the modified Cross model. It is clearly shown, in this work, when the quantity of sodium tripolyphosphate is less than of 0.4 % causes a decrease in the yield stress, the zero shear rate viscosity (lower Newtonian plateau) and the infinite shear rate viscosity (upper Newtonian plateau). However, when dose of sodium tripolyphosphate is greater than the critical dose, the the yield stress, the zero shear rate viscosity (lower Newtonian plateau) and the infinite shear rate viscosity (upper Newtonian plateau) are increased. As a result, this study find that the increase on thixotropic behavior of dams sediments is occurred by the addition of sodium tripolyphosphate in a concentration ranging between 0.2 wt% and 0.8 wt% to 40 wt% and 45 wt% of dams sediments. The study also demonstrated that adding of 0.4 wt% of sodium tripolyphosphate to 40 wt% and 45 wt% dam sediments decreased the friction factor by 96% and 25% respectively.