Measuring Retardation Factors of and Cations Using Column Test
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 145, Issue 9
Abstract
A flow-through column test setup was developed to measure the breakthrough curves of (Cs) and (Sr) cations in a natural silty sand. Advantages of this column setup include ensuring full saturation with a back-pressure technique and maintaining a constant hydraulic gradient condition with overflow design. The former eliminates large variations in retardation factor () from reduced surface sites for contaminant-retarding reactions and increased duration time, both caused by unsaturation. The latter creates a more realistic simulation of the field condition than a constant-flow-rate setup. The retardation factors of Sr and Cs cations were found to be 3.561 and 27.369, which were slightly lower than the range under similar but broader ranges of fines content and pH. This slight difference is attributed to the lower fines content of the soil, high input concentrations of both Cs and Sr, and the competing monovalent and divalent cations in the influent with high ionic strength. Although not significant in this study, particle migration was observed.
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Acknowledgments
This work is financial supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Award No. 51779219). The financial support by AREVA Ltd., the One-Thousand-Young-Talents Program of the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee and the 100-Talents Program of Zhejiang University to the corresponding author is deeply appreciated. MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering is also acknowledged.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 145 • Issue 9 • September 2019
Copyright
©2019 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 4, 2018
Accepted: Mar 11, 2019
Published online: Jul 8, 2019
Published in print: Sep 1, 2019
Discussion open until: Dec 8, 2019
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