Rheological analysis of natural and diluted mud suspensions

Natural mud usually exhibits non-Newtonian rheological behaviors like viscoelasticity, thixotropy and yield stress. The history of each mud sample is also an important factor influencing the rheological behavior, as the state of the clay fabric – for a same composition – is dependent on the shear stresses experienced previously by the sample. Several rheological tests including stress ramp-up, oscillatory frequency sweep and structural recovery tests were performed, in order to analyse the rheological fingerprint of the mud samples collected from two different locations of the Port of Hamburg. The yield stress, storage moduli and structural recovery of mud from the same location was studied as a function of density for two series of samples. One series consisted of samples (“natural samples”) taken in-situ as a function of depth (with increasing density as a function of depth) whereas the other one (“diluted samples”) consisted of samples whereby the density was varied by adding in-situ water to the natural sample having the highest density. Significant differences in rheological characteristics were found between the natural and diluted mud samples, that were attributed to the state/composition of the mud's fabric in each situation but also to the structural rearrangements caused by the preparation of diluted samples.