Settling velocities of particulate systems: 11. Comparison of the phenomenological sedimentation-consolidation model with published experimental results

In one space dimension, the phenomenological theory of sedimentation-consol idation processes predicts the settling behaviour of a flocculated suspensi on in dependence of two constitutive material-specific functions, the Kynch batch flux density function and the effective solid stress. These function s depend only on the local solids concentration. In this paper, we determin e these functions from published data of several experimental studies. The mathematical model is then solved numerically making use of these functions ; The numerical results are compared to the respective measurements. Genera l good agreement between numerical and experimental data confirms the valid ity of the phenomenological theory. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All righ ts reserved.