Long-Term Hydraulic Conductivity of a Geosynthetic Clay Liner Permeated with Inorganic Salt Solutions
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 131, Issue 4
Abstract
Hydraulic conductivity tests were conducted on a geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) for more than and as many as 686 pore volumes of flow (PVF) using single-species salt solutions (NaCl, KCl, or ) to (1) evaluate how the long-term hydraulic conductivity is affected by cation concentration and valence and (2) demonstrate the relevance and importance of termination criteria when measuring hydraulic conductivity of GCLs to salt solutions. Permeation with solutions resulted in an increase in the hydraulic conductivity of 1 order of magnitude or more. The rate at which these changes occurred depended on concentration, with slower changes (years and hundreds of PVF) occurring for weaker solutions. In contrast, permeation with NaCl or KCl solutions or de-ionized (DI) water resulted in no appreciable change in hydraulic conductivity, regardless of the duration of permeation or number of pore volumes of flow. Hydraulic conductivities determined in accordance with ASTM D 5084 and D 6766 ( and ) equaled when the permeant solution contained NaCl, KCl, or was a strong solution. In contrast, when the permeant liquid was a weak solution, and were 2–13 times lower than . Closer agreement between and was obtained for weak solutions when the electrical conductivity ratio criterion was tightened to . Hydraulic conductivities obtained after comparable influent and effluent concentrations of the permeant salt %) were approximately lower than for weak solutions. Hydraulic conductivities equal to were obtained from the tests permeated with weak solutions only when Na was no longer eluted at detectable levels.
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Acknowledgments
Support for this study was provided by the United States National Science Foundation under Grant No. CMS-9900336 to the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Grant No. CMS-9820863 to Colorado State University. The opinions expressed in this paper are solely those of the writers and are not necessarily consistent with the policies or opinions of the NSF.
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Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 131 • Issue 4 • April 2005
Pages: 405 - 417
Copyright
© 2005 ASCE.
History
Received: Sep 11, 2003
Accepted: Aug 9, 2004
Published online: Apr 1, 2005
Published in print: Apr 2005
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