The current study is the first step in a systematic experimental research on the erosion behaviour of sand-mud mixtures. It concerns the effect of a varying sand content and clay mineralogy on the porosity, structure, strength and permeability of artificially generated sediment mixtures. The permeability of a sediment mixture is an especially significant parameter concerning the type of erosion that occurs. It determines if the erosion of the bed is either a drained or an undrained process, respectively indicating surface erosion or mass erosion. Measurements on various mixtures concerning the consolidation coefficient and the permeability have been executed. Results show a distinct transition of behaviour between a sand-silt dominated network structure and a clay-water matrix. The occurrence of these two types of structures appears to depend on the porosity of the volume fraction of sand related to silt, which is, therefore, an important parameter concerning the type of erosion. Finally, the study provides a valuable data set that can be used as a reference for following stages of this research on the erosion behaviour of natural cohesive sediments.
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