Abstract:The problems of sedimentation and water environment in the Three Gorges Reservoir area have been widely concerned. The proportion of sedimentation in the amount of sediment entering the reservoir has been increasing year by year, which has caused negative impacts on navigation, reservoir water transfer and flood control capabilities, and ecological environment protection. The main reason for the sedimentation in the Three Gorges Reservoir area is the occurrence of flocculation and sedimentation, and the flocculation of the sediment is related to many factors, among which electrolyte is a more influential and more complex factor. A set of self-developed multi-layer grid flocculation and settling device was used to generate approximately isotropic and uniform turbulent flow through the up and down vibration of the multi-layer grid to simulate the flocculation process of sediment in the natural flow state of the Three Gorges reservoir area. And analyze the changes of sediment Zeta potential and flocculation characteristics in different concentrations of Nacl, MgCl2, CaCl2, AlCl3 solutions. The results show: (1) Adding electrolyte can change the zeta potential of sediment particles, and with the increase of electrolyte concentration, the absolute value of sediment particle potential decreases; (2) The four electrolytes can all affect the Zeta potential of the sediment in the Three Gorges Reservoir area, but different valence states and different types of cations have different effects on the Zeta potential; (3) Under dynamic water flow conditions, the input of electrolyte can obviously promote sediment flocculation, and this promotion is also related to the type of electrolyte.