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Compressibility of Compacted Clays Mixed with a Wide Range of Bentonite for Engineered Barriers

  • Research Article - Civil Engineering
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Abstract

Compacted clay–bentonite mixtures are often used as compacted blocks and landfills in high-level radioactive waste repositories and clay liners, respectively. A better understanding of their compressibility behaviour is essential to guarantee the disposal safety. In this study, mixtures of clays and bentonite are used to investigate the compressibility and compaction behaviour. Three natural clays were selected with different physical characteristics, and clay–bentonite mixtures were prepared by mixing the bentonite content up to 50%. A series of standard compaction tests and consolidation tests were performed in the laboratory; the samples for the consolidation test were prepared at the optimum moisture contents and maximum dry unit weights. With increasing bentonite content, the liquid limit, plasticity index, optimum moisture content, initial void ratio and compression index of natural clays increase and maximum dry unit weight and yield stress decrease. It was observed that the effect of bentonite on geotechnical characteristics pronounced when bentonite content exceeded 10%. Correlations were also proposed to estimate the compression characteristics and compression curves of compacted clays using three physical parameters such as the initial void ratio, optimum moisture content and maximum dry unit weight.

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Abbreviations

BC:

Bentonite content

\(C_\mathrm{c}\) :

Compression index

e :

Void ratio

\(e_{{0}}\) :

Initial void ratio

\(e_{{100}}\) :

Void ratio at 100 kPa pressure

\(e_{{1000}}\) :

Void ratio at 1000 kPa pressure

\(e_\mathrm{L}\) :

Void ratio at liquid limit

EICL:

Extended intrinsic compression line

GSD:

Grain-size distribution

\(G_\mathrm{s}\) :

Specific gravity

HLW:

High-level radioactive waste

\(I_\mathrm{P}\) :

Plasticity index

\(I_\mathrm{v}\) :

Void index proposed by Burland [49]

\(I_\mathrm{vc}\) :

Void index proposed for compacted clay–bentonite mixture

ICL:

Intrinsic compression line

NCCL:

Normalized compacted compression line

MSW:

Municipal solid waste

\(w_\mathrm{opt}\) :

Optimum moisture content

\(w_\mathrm{L}\) :

Liquid limit

\(w_\mathrm{n}\) :

Natural moisture content

\(w_\mathrm{p}\) :

Plastic limit

\(\sigma _\mathrm{v}'\) :

Effective consolidation pressure

\(\sigma _\mathrm{y}\) :

Yield stress

\(\gamma _\mathrm{dmax}\) :

Maximum dry unit weight

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Civil Engineering Department, State Key Laboratory of Ocean Engineering, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, 200240, China

    Usama Khalid & Chencong Liao

  2. Civil Engineering Department, COMSATS University Islamabad, Sahiwal, Pakistan

    Usama Khalid

  3. State Key Laboratory of Hydroscience and Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, 100084, China

    Zia ur Rehman

  4. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Engineering and Technology, Lahore, Pakistan

    Khalid Farooq & Hassan Mujtaba

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  1. Usama Khalid
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  2. Zia ur Rehman
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  3. Chencong Liao
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  4. Khalid Farooq
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  5. Hassan Mujtaba
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Correspondence to Zia ur Rehman.

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Khalid, U., Rehman, Z.u., Liao, C. et al. Compressibility of Compacted Clays Mixed with a Wide Range of Bentonite for Engineered Barriers. Arab J Sci Eng 44, 5027–5042 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13369-018-03693-7

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