Containing Heavy Metal Contaminants Using Soil-Cement Column Barrier

심층혼합기둥체 차수벽을 이용한 중금속 오염물질의 이동 제어

Laboratory experiments were peformed to understand physical properties of soil-cement column under the influence of acidic flow including metal contaminants and its retaining capacity against metal migration. The contaminant used in this study was nitric acid with Cu and Cd. The Permeability of soil-cement column decreased when pH of the column began to drop below 12. Decreases in pH led to significant reduction of compressive strength of clayey soil-cement specimen, while relatively marginal reduction for sandy soil-cement specimen. The metal contaminants did not leachate from soil-cement column until pH of soil-cement dropped below 7∼8 for Cu and 9∼10 for Cd. Metal contaminants were precipitated and trapped inside the soil-cement column at pHs higher than those mentioned as verified with metal analysis and visual inspection. This indicated that soil-cement column not only performs well as a cut-off wall, but also helps alleviating the level of contamination of the surrounding environment.