Influence of temperature on swelling deformation characteristic of compacted GMZ bentonite-sand mixtures

Abstract

Laboratory swelling deformation tests were carried out on compacted GMZ bentonite and bentonite-sand mixtures with 30% and 50 % sand contents at 20, 40, 60, 80 and 90 °C with infiltration of distilled water. Influence of temperature, initial dry density, and quartz sand content on the swelling deformation characteristic of compacted bentonite specimens was analyzed. Results indicate that the swelling deformation process is accelerated, and the maximum swelling strain increases with the increase in temperature, while the maximum swelling strain tends to be stable with increasing temperature. In the meantime, the temperature effects depend on both of the sand content and the initial dry density of the specimens, the increases of the maximum swelling strain induced by increasing temperature, are enlarged by increasing sand content or initial dry density. Adding of quartz sand to bentonite not only influences the integrality of bentonite specimen, but also increase the microfissuring in area on quartz sand, which are advantageous to the heat transfer, leading to the increase of swelling deformation capacity of the specimen. The increased dry density relatively increases the bentonite content, so the swelling property is enhanced. However, no change on mineral composition of bentonite was observed when temperature was changed from 20 to 90 °C.