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Membrane behavior of compacted GMZ bentonite and its granite mixture

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Abstract

The membrane behavior of GMZ bentonite and its granite mixture, which consists of 70% GMZ bentonite and 30% grinded granite rock in dry weight, was quantitatively evaluated in this study. Specimens with different initial dry densities were subjected to multi-stage membrane behavior tests with concentration differences of 0.01, 0.05, 0.1 and 0.5 M of NaCl or CaCl2 solutions across the specimen in each stage. Membrane behavior was evaluated by measuring the chemico-osmotic efficiency coefficient ω. Results indicate that the membrane behavior of GMZ bentonite and its granite mixture decreases with the decrease in initial dry density and bentonite content, as well as the increases in solution concentration and cation valence. These conclusions could be explained by (1) variations in pore size distribution caused by different initial dry densities and bentonite contents; (2) increase in macro-pores in quality induced by shrinkage and collapse of DDLs resulting from the interactions between clay and solutions; (3) decrease in micropores and increase in macro-pores induced by cation exchange.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Project: 41527801 and 41672271) for the financial support. The authors also wish to acknowledge the support of the European Commission via the Marie Curie IRSES project GREAT—Geotechnical and geological Responses to climate change: Exchanging Approaches and Technologies on a worldwide scale (FP7-PEOPLE-2013-IRSES-612665).

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  1. Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering of Ministry of Education, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, China

    W. M. Ye, W. Su, Y. G. Chen & B. Chen

  2. United Research Center for Urban Environment and Sustainable Development, The Ministry of Education, Shanghai, 200092, China

    W. M. Ye

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  1. W. M. Ye
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Correspondence to W. M. Ye.

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Ye, W.M., Su, W., Chen, Y.G. et al. Membrane behavior of compacted GMZ bentonite and its granite mixture. Environ Earth Sci 76, 683 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-017-7015-9

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