Hydraulic Performance Of Geosynthetic Clay Liners Research Articles

Hydraulic conductivity of geosynthetic clay liners to inorganic waste leachate

Hydraulic conductivity (k) tests were conducted to evaluate how the permeation of solidified/stabilized inorganic hazardous waste (SIHW) leachate affected the k values of two geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs): a natural sodium bentonite GCL (GCL-N) and a sodium-activated calcium bentonite GCL (GCL-S). The two GCLs were permeated with distilled water (DW) and a SIHW leachate. The effects of the type of bentonite, effective stress and prehydration were assessed. At effective stress of 30 kPa, the k to DW was 1.5 × 10–11 m/s and 5.1 × 10–11 m/s for GCL-N and GCL-S, respectively. In contrast, at the same effective stress, permeation with SIHW leachate caused the k to increase by factors ranging from 1.2 to 3733 for GCL-N and from 86 to 5294 for GCL-S, respectively. Compared with GCL-N, GCL-S had poorer hydraulic performance. Increasing the effective stress and prehydration with DW reduced the detrimental effect induced by permeation with SIHW leachate. Some GCL specimens maintained low k values to SIHW leachate even though the corresponding bentonites had small or modest swell indexes in SIHW leachate. The results of this study suggest that further evaluation is needed before using swell index test to assess the effect of SIHW leachate on the hydraulic performance of GCLs.

Hydraulic performance of geosynthetic clay liners to sulfuric acid solutions

The ability of geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) to contain acidic mining leachates is examined. The results of saturated hydraulic conductivity (k) of two GCLs permeated with sulfuric acid solutions (H2SO4) at 0.015 M, 0.125 M and 0.5 M concentrations are reported. Also, the saturated k values of consolidated (35 kPa) bentonite cakes made from sodium bentonite extracted from both GCLs were compared to a commonly used magnesium–sodium form bentonite. Chemical compatibility and effects of pre-hydration and effective stress were assessed as part of this study. Results indicated that an increased acid concentration (ionic strength) increased the k of all tested specimens. The ratio of the k0.5 values for non-prehydrated specimens permeated with 0.5 M H2SO4 to the kw values for specimens permeated with deionized (DI) water (k0.5/kw) ranged from 10 to 110. Pre-hydration (50–140% water content) and increased effective stress (35–200 kPa) improved the performance of GCLs (lower k). Strong correlations were observed between k and liquid limit and swell index parameters independent of pre-hydration and effective stress in this study. However, care should still be taken when using these correlations to evaluate hydraulic performance because the intrinsic micro-structure properties of bentonite, such as porosity, should also be considered. This work showed that, for example, high SI of bentonite does not translate necessarily to a better hydraulic performance of GCLs.