Eighth International Conference on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering
Stresses in Soil-Bentonite Slurry Trench Cutoff Wall
Publication: Geo-Congress 2019: Geoenvironmental Engineering and Sustainability (GSP 312)
ABSTRACT
Soil bentonite (SB) slurry trench cutoff walls have been widely used for over 40 years to control ground water flow through and beneath dams and levees and to control subsurface contaminant transport at contaminated sites. The idea that the state-of-stress in SB slurry trench cutoff walls is less than geostatic was first published over 30 years ago and it is well established that the hydraulic conductivity of SB backfill is stress dependent. With funding from the National Science Foundation, a full-scale, instrumented SB slurry trench cutoff wall was constructed with embedded instrumentation that directly measures the stress and pore pressure in three dimensions at multiple depths and locations. These data have been synthesized and the authors compare the results of stress measurements in this wall with various models. Finally, the authors provide summary opinions and practical recommendations for the design and construction of SB walls.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the National Science Foundation (Award # 1463198) that enabled this research project and contributions of the co-Pi’s on the project, Professors Michael Malusis and Robert Jacob. The authors would also like to acknowledge the contributions of CETCO which donated the bentonite for this project, Central Builders Supply which provided onsite support during construction and the study location, and Geo-Solutions, Inc. which performed the construction. In addition, the authors acknowledge the Jeffrey C Evans Geotechnical Engineering Laboratory endowment, established through the generosity of Michael and Laureen Costa, which was used to provide financial support for the students and faculty and Dr. Yu-Ling Yang during her post-doc appointment at Bucknell University. Special thanks are also given to James Gutelius, Director of Bucknell's Civil Engineering Laboratories for his numerous contributions to this project and to Professor Alan Marchiori for his contributions to the data acquisition and transmission. Contributing students include Landon Barlow, Minwoo Cho, Ushma Manadhar, Brian Ward, Tyler Zbytek, Max Ororbia, Fernando Andrade Orellana Alves, and Nancy Ingabire Abayo. Finally, the authors appreciate the detailed reviews and helpful comments received as part of ASCE’s peer review process.
REFERENCES
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Geo-Congress 2019: Geoenvironmental Engineering and Sustainability (GSP 312)
Pages: 177 - 184
Editors: Christopher L. Meehan, Ph.D., University of Delaware, Sanjeev Kumar, Ph.D., Southern Illinois University Carbondale, Miguel A. Pando, Ph.D., University of North Carolina Charlotte, and Joseph T. Coe, Ph.D., Temple University
ISBN (Online): 978-0-7844-8214-8
Copyright
© 2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Published online: Mar 21, 2019
Published in print: Mar 21, 2019
ASCE Technical Topics:
- Diaphragm walls
- Environmental engineering
- Flow (fluid dynamics)
- Fluid dynamics
- Fluid mechanics
- Geomechanics
- Geotechnical engineering
- Groundwater flow
- Groundwater pollution
- Hydrologic engineering
- Pollutants
- Pollution
- Sludge
- Soil mechanics
- Soil pollution
- Soil properties
- Soil stress
- Soil water
- Structural engineering
- Structural members
- Structural systems
- Trenches
- Trenchless technology
- Tunneling
- Tunnels
- Walls
- Wastes
- Water and water resources
- Water pollution
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