Hydraulic Conductivity of Kaolin Permeated with Salt Solution

In expressway engineering, the environmental impacts of the drainage and leachate collected from the road surface or road bank have attracted public attentions about their potential risks on human health. The maintenance of the expressway always requires considerable amount of chemicals, e.g. CaCl₂. Thus there is need to design pools along the expressway to collect and treat the road drainages. Due to the low hydraulic conductivity, compacted clay liners are primarily used in waste disposal facilities. It is still lack of complete knowledge about compacted clay liners. In this study, the effect of salt solutions on the hydraulic conductivity of compacted Kaolin column was experimentally investigated by laboratory tests. The changes in electrical conductivity and pH values of the leachates were also monitored. The results might be helpful to the engineering designers in this field.