Saturated hydraulic conductivity of compacted steel slag-bentonite mixtures--A potential hydraulic barrier material of landfill cover

L T Zhan; J Q Ni; S Feng; L G Kong; T Feng

doi:10.1016/j.wasman.2022.04.004

Saturated hydraulic conductivity of compacted steel slag-bentonite mixtures--A potential hydraulic barrier material of landfill cover

Waste Manag. 2022 May 1:144:349-356. doi: 10.1016/j.wasman.2022.04.004. Epub 2022 Apr 15.

Authors

L T Zhan¹, J Q Ni², S Feng³, L G Kong⁴, T Feng⁵

Affiliations

¹ MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Zhejiang University, China. Electronic address: zhanlt@zju.edu.cn.
² MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Zhejiang University, China. Electronic address: 21912010@zju.edu.cn.
³ MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Zhejiang University, China; College of Civil Engineering, Fuzhou University, China. Electronic address: sfengaa@connect.ust.hk.
⁴ MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Zhejiang University, China. Electronic address: klg@zju.edu.cn.
⁵ MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Department of Civil Engineering, Zhejiang University, China. Electronic address: fengshenjunlang@zju.edu.cn.

PMID: 35436714
DOI: 10.1016/j.wasman.2022.04.004

Abstract

The feasibility of using steel slag and bentonite mixtures to construct the hydraulic barrier of a landfill cover was explored in the present study. Fine-grained steel slag (SS; particle diameter < 1 mm) and sodium-activated calcium bentonite (SACB) were used to prepare compacted specimens, and the saturated hydraulic conductivity (k_s) was measured using a flexible-wall permeameter. Influential factors including SACB content (BC), SS gradation, water-washing treatment of SS and compaction water content (ω_comp) were investigated. The hydraulic conductivity results were interpreted in microscopic scale through mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). It was found that when BC was below 10%, the k_s value of the specimens prepared with well graded SS was about one order of magnitude lower than that of the specimens prepared with poorly graded SS. This was due to less macropores caused by better SS gradation. Yet, the effects of SS gradation on k_s diminished as BC further increased to 15%, suggesting the dominant role of BC on k_s at high BC. Water-washing treatment of SS helped reduce k_s significantly to 1.2 × 10^-10 m/s at BC of 10%, owing to less multivalent cations and hence lower osmotic swelling reduction caused by cations. Controlling ω_comp 1-2% wetter than the optimum water content (ω_opt) also helped reduce k_s significantly, owing to the reduction of macropores. Accordingly, it is suggested to use well-graded SS mixed with 10% SACB and then compact at ω_comp slightly wetter than ω_opt to the degree of compaction greater than 90% in engineering practice.

Keywords: Bentonite; Hydraulic barrier; Hydraulic conductivity; Micro-scale analysis; Steel slag.

MeSH terms

Bentonite*
Chemical Phenomena
Steel*
Waste Disposal Facilities
Water

Substances

Water
Steel
Bentonite