• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2003.09a
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• pp.395-398
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• 2003

Geosynthetic Clay Liners(GCLs) have been widely used as hydraulic barrier in landfills and remediation projects of contaminated sites. The aim of this research is to modify GCLs for effective removal of contaminants. We perform the free swell test, hydraulic conductivity test, and contaminants (TCE, hexavalent chromium, and nitrate) removal test on the bentonite-ZVI mixture with various ZVI content. As the ZVI content increased, contaminants removal efficiencies and swell volume increased, and hydraulic conductivity decreased.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 2001.09a
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• pp.208-211
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• 2001

Geosynthetic Clay Liners (GCLs) have been used for the applications of the hydraulic containment system in landfill due to inexpensive costs, simple workability and distinguished ability as a barrier material. However, bentonite of GCLs is easy to be damaged by the chemical solutions. Thus, there is a need to evaluate the potential susceptibility of GCLs causing Increase the hydraulic conductivity when GCLs are exposed to raw leachate and dissolved humic substances from landfill leachate. The hydraulic conductivity tests were performed with flexible-wall permeameter (the falling -headwater/rising -tailwater procedure) in order to verify the potential susceptibility of GCLs. The values of the hydraulic conductivity conducted with raw leachate as a permeant liquid increased considerably; however, The change of the hydraulic conductivity in the case of humic and fulvic acid were not worthy of notice. As the results of swelling tests of bentonite, however, humic substances can affect badly on the dispersion behavior of bentonite. These results indicate that humic substances dissolved in leachate could reduce the hydraulic conductivity of GCLs in landfill.

• Journal of the Korean Geosynthetics Society
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.49-58
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• 2006

Recently, geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) have increasingly been used to replace compacted clay liners (CCLs) in composite liner systems. Since the introduction of GCLs to waste containment facilities, one of the major concerns about their use has been the hydraulic equivalency to CCLs as required by regulations. Laboratory test results and more recently field observations show that the thickness, or mass per unit area, of hydrated bentonite in a GCL can decrease under normal stress, especially around zones of stress concentration or nonuniform stresses, such as a rock or roughness in the subgrade, a leachate sump, or wrinkles in an overlying geomembrane. This paper presents field case histories that confirm the laboratory observations of bentonite migration and the effect of bentonite migration on hydraulic equivalency and contaminant transport through a GCL.

• Geomechanics and Engineering
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1091-1100
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• 2018

In this study, the relationships between hydraulic conductivity of GCLs and physico-chemical properties of bentonites were assessed. In addition to four factory manufactured GCLs, six artificially prepared GCLs (AP-GCLs) were tested. AP-GCLs were prepared in the laboratory without bonding or stitching. A total of 20 hydraulic conductivity tests were conducted using flexible wall permeameters ten of which were permeated with distilled deionized water (DIW) and the rest were permeated with tap water (TW). The hydraulic conductivity of GCLs and AP-GCLs were between $5.2{\times}10^{-10}cm/s$ and $3.0{\times}10^{-9}cm/s$. The hydraulic conductivities of all GCLs to DIW were very similar to that of GCLs to TW. Then, simple regression analyses were conducted between hydraulic conductivity and physicochemical properties of bentonite. The best correlation coefficient was achieved when hydraulic conductivity was related with clay content (R=0.85). Liquid limit and plasticity index were other independent variables that have good correlation coefficients with hydraulic conductivity (R~0.80). The correlation coefficient with swell index is less than other parameters, but still fairly good (R~0.70). In contrast, hydraulic conductivity had poor correlation coefficients with specific surface area (SSA), smectite content and cation exchange capacity (CEC) (i.e., R < 0.5). Furthermore, some post-test properties of bentonite such as final height and final water content were correlated with the hydraulic conductivity as well. The hydraulic conductivity of GCLs had fairly good correlation coefficients with either final height or final water content. However, those of AP-GCLs had poor correlations with these variables on account of fiber free characteristics.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.20 no.7
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• pp.141-158
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• 2004

The dependency of criteria used to terminate compatibility tests on the prehydration and quality of bentonite in geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) is evaluated based on permeation with chemical solutions containing 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 mM calcium chloride ($CaCl_2$). The hydraulic conductivity tests are not terminated before chemical equilibrium between the effluent and the influent chemistry has been established, resulting in test durations ranging from < 1 day to > 900 days, with longer test durations associated with lower $CaCl_2$ concentrations. The evaluation includes both physical termination criteria (i.e., volumetric flow ratio and steady hydraulic conductivity based on ASTM D 5084, ${\ge}2$ pore volumes of flow, constant thickness of specimen) and chemical termination criteria requiring equilibrium between influent and effluent chemistry (viz., electrical conductivity, pH, and $Ca^{2+}\;and\;Cl^-$ concentrations). For specimens permeated with 5, 10, and 20 mM $CaCl_2$ solutions, only the criterion based on chemical equilibrium in $Ca^{2+}$ concentration correlates well with equilibrium in hydraulic conductivity, regardless of prehydration or quality of bentonite. However, all of the termination criteria, except for the volumetric flow ratio and 2 pore volumes of flow for the prehydrated specimens, correlate well with equilibrium in hydraulic conductivity regardless of prehydration or quality of bentonite when permeated with 50 and 100 mM $CaCl_2$ solutions. The results illustrate the uniqueness of the termination criterion based on solute concentration equilibrium between the effluent and the influent with respect to both prehydration and quality of bentonite in the GCLs.