Consolidation and Hydraulic Conductivity of Zeolite-Amended Soil-Bentonite Backfills
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 138, Issue 1
Abstract
The effect of zeolite amendment for enhanced sorption capacity on the consolidation behavior and hydraulic conductivity, , of a representative soil-bentonite (SB) backfill for vertical cutoff walls was evaluated via laboratory testing. The consolidation behavior and of test specimens containing fine sand, 5.8% (dry weight) sodium bentonite, and 0, 2, 5, or 10% (dry weight) of one of three types of zeolite (clinoptilolite, chabazite-lower bed, or chabazite-upper bed) were measured using fixed-ring oedometers, and also was measured on separate specimens using a flexible-wall permeameter. The results indicated that addition of a zeolite had little impact on either the consolidation behavior or the of the backfill, regardless of the amount or type of zeolite. For example, the compression index, , for the unamended backfill specimen was 0.24, whereas values of for the zeolite-amended specimens were in the range . Similarly, the for the unamended specimen based on flexible-wall tests was , whereas values of for zeolite-amended specimens were in the range . The results of the study suggest that enhancing the sorption capacity of typical SB backfills via zeolite amendment is not likely to have a significant effect on the consolidation behavior or of the backfill, provided that the amount of zeolite added is small ( ).
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Acknowledgments
Financial support for this work was provided by the National Science Foundation (NSF) through Grant No. NSF0624104. The opinions and recommendations provided in this paper are solely those of the authors and are not necessarily consistent with the policies of NSF. The authors thank Central Builders Supply (Lewisburg, PA), GSA Resources (Tucson, AZ), and Wyo-Ben (Billings, MT) for donating materials used in this study.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 138 • Issue 1 • January 2012
Pages: 15 - 25
Copyright
© 2012 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jul 2, 2010
Accepted: May 9, 2011
Published online: May 11, 2011
Published in print: Jan 1, 2012
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