Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science (1994) 39, 451-460 The Fractal Structure of Cohesive Sediment Aggregates C. Kranenburg Department of Civil Engineering, Delft University of Technology, P.O. Box 5048, 2600 GA Delft, The Netherlands Received 17 May 1993 and in revised form 3 December 1993 Keywor theology cobesive sediment; aggregation; fractal structure; permeabi The forces between particles and the structure of cohesive sediment aggregates to a large extent determine various mechanical and theological properties of mud flocs and mud beds. The unifying concept of self-similar fractal geometry is adopted to model the complex and much variable structure of cohesive sediment aggregates. The fractal aggregate model, which has been applied to aggregation in colloidal suspensions over more than a decade, is related to Krone’s (1963) notion or orders of aggregation. However, self-similarity on all scales implies that a unique relationship exists between aggregate size and number of primary particles that form the aggregate. The consequences of self-similar fractal structure concerning density and strength of flocs, and permeability, yield strength and viscosity of mud beds are analysed in some detail. Comparison of the results obtained with experimental data from the literature supports the fractal model. Introduction It has been known for a long time that under certain conditions cohesive sediment (or mud) particles tend to form complex structures, called aggregates or flocs, due to cohesive or adhesive forces. ‘The aggregate structure to a large extent determines various mechanical properties of mud such as the density of flocs, the permeability of a mud bed, and rheological properties such as yield strength and viscosity. However, the extremely complicated nature of the aggregate structure appears to thwart a straightforward analysis of these properties. A significant contribution to our understanding of aggregate structure is due to Krone (1963, 1986) and Partheniades (1965), who noted that primary particles form flocs, which join together to form floc aggregates. These aggregates combine to form larger aggregates, etc, Krone introduced the concept of orders of aggregation, and showed experimentally that aggregate density, yield strength and viscosity depend on the order of aggregation. This work, and the description due to Partheniades, suggest a structure that is more or less independent of the scale considered. A more recent tool to model such structures is the self-similar fractal (Mandelbrot, 1982), the geometrical properties of which are truly scale invariant however complex its (0272-7714/94/110451 +10 $08.00/0 © 1994 Academic Press Limited452 G. Kranenburg structure may be. It is well known that aggregates and aggregate networks in colloidal suspensions tend to be self-similar (e.g. Family & Landau, 1984; Jullien & Botet, 1987). An example to illustrate self-similar fractal structure is the following (Meakin, 1988); consider a basic element of a fixed structure formed by m, primary particles. Form an aggregate by connecting m, of these basic elements in such a fashion that the geometry of the elements is the same as that of the particle positions in the basic element. Repeat this action to form larger aggregates, etc. During each step in this hierarchical process the size of the aggregate will increase by a certain factor m,. As a result, the total number N of particles in a fractal aggregate of size R, scales as > N~ [F| q) Ry, where R, is the size of the primary particles, and D is the fractal dimension given by pen @) Inm, An early and remarkable result in the field of cohesive sediment research confirming equation (1) is due to Tambo and Watanabe (1979), who found D=2:1 from their numerical simulations of the aggregation process. In principle, the fractal dimension may be any number in the interval [1,3]. In general, the order of aggregation, which in the example given was discrete, is a continuous function of aggregate size. To obtain (1) and (2) it is sufficient to require that, if at a size R the number of primary particles is increased by a factor m,, the size of the aggregate will increase by a factor m, that is independent of R, Furthermore the structure of real aggregates is random rather than deterministic. Experiments on aggregation in dilute colloidal suspensions and numerical simulations have revealed that preferred values of the fractal dimension exist. Aggregates of polarized particles tend to be very tenuous or stringy so that D is close to 1. Particles that tend to stick to each other when colliding, rapidly form aggregates with D equal to about 1-8 (diffusion limited aggregation; Meakin, 1988). Electrostatically charged particles in a liquid in which no electrolyte is dissolved aggregate much slower, and the fractal dimension is about 2-1 (reaction limited aggregation; Meakin, 1988; Lin er al., 1990). ‘The fractal dimension tends to increase at high volume fractions of primary particles. ‘When observed visually, aggregates appear as compact, untransparent structures if D>2, whereas they look more ramified if D<2. If the aggregates are subject to weak forces, caused by sedimentation or shear, for example, substantial restructuring may occur resulting in a higher fractal dimension, up to about 2-7, In the case of pure coalescence of particles D would be equal to 3, Above a critical volume fraction called the gelation threshold, a space-filling particle network is formed in the continuous liquid phase, and a transition from the liquid state to the solid state takes place. It would be naive to expect that mud, with its large variability of properties such as mineral composition, particle size distribution and organic matter content, would form aggregates that are exactly self-similar. Nevertheless it seems worthwhile to examine to what extent the concepts underlying fractal aggregation models can be applied to cohesive sediments. It is thus possible to mutually relate various properties of cohesive sediment properties. Such unification, though inevitably partial, leads to a more coherent conception of the apparently complex and variable structure of mud flocs andFractal structure of cohesive sediment ageregates 453 mud beds. This note presents applications of the self-similar fractal model to the density and strength of suspended mud flocs, and the permeability, yield strength and viscosity of mud beds. ‘The results are compared with selected experimental data available from the literature. Suspended flocs Let us consider 2 uniform suspension of n mud flocs per unit volume in water. The volume fraction g, of mud particles is given by 9,=nN V,, where V, is the volume of a particle, Substituting from equation (1) gives, because V,~R3, #5 nwo ® ROR,” The volume fraction 9, of aggregates is larger than ¢,, and is given by p,=nV,,~n R2, or Rp? Ga Pp [F] 4) ‘p The floc density p, follows from the conservation of mass including that of the captured water, PoPa= Port Peo Pa Yn) 6) where p, is the density of the particles and p, that of water. Defining the excess density 4p=p— Py and substituting from equation (4) gives sp APa~ Ab, [el © where the subscripts a and p refer to aggregates and particles, respectively. A power-law relationship between excess floc density and floc size is what is commonly observed. Reviews are given by McCave (1975) and Van Leussen (1988). The exponent in equation (6) as deduced from observations varies from about 0-8 for lacustrine flocs (Hawley, 1982) to about 1-6 for marine snow (Alldredge & Gotschalk, 1988). According to equation (6) the corresponding fractal dimensions are in the range 1:4-2:2, These values confirm that the full spectrum of aggregate structures, from tenuous to compact, occurs in nature as well as in the laboratory. Next the influence of a fractal structure on the yield stress a, of a floc is considered. ‘The floc strength is determined mainly by the relatively few particles that fink the aggregates together (Bremer et al., 1989). The scale invariance of self-similar fractal structure implies that the number of bonds in a critical yield plane does not depend on the size of the aggregate. Consequently, the yield strength of a floc is independent of its size, Since yield strength is equal to yield stress multiplied by area of cross-section, the product a, R? is constant. This gives a,~Rz? @ Substituting from equation (6), this result can be written as 2 oy~ Apa? ®