Even after mechanical dewatering, activated sludge contains a large amount of water. Due to its biological nature, composition and also the type of treatment it comes from, this material is usually highly compressible and known to be difficult to dewater. In the present work various tests are proposed to try to highlight some aspects which could explain the poor dewaterability of activated sludge. Experiments of expression were carried out in a Filtration-Compression Cell for semi-solid samples of sludge. Operating conditions (intensity of the applied pressure, initial thickness of sludge sample) and the composition of the sludge (ionic strength by adding monovalent salt) were modified for the different series of experiments. It was observed that the removal of water from the sludge depended significantly on the pressure gradient throughout the sludge cake. However, the development of a dense layer of cake at the interface cake/filter medium seems to generate a pressure gradient non-uniformly distributed throughout the thickness of the cake. This phenomenon should control in part the efficiency of dewatering. This study also discusses the link between sludge dewaterability and cake relaxation on the basic of an osmotic effect within the flocculated matrix, which tends to resist against compression or deformation. This effect was reduced when both the applied pressure and the time increased. Finally, the activated sludge dewatering during expression stage depends on both the formation of a dense layer of cake at the interface cake/filter medium and an osmotic effect. (C) 2010 The Institution of Chemical Engineers. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.