• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Soil and Groundwater Environment Conference
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• 1998.11a
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• pp.216-220
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• 1998

Experimental studies were carried out to investigate water diffusion in unsaturated compacted bentonite for a landfill of hazardous wastes. Water content distributions were measured and water diffusion coefficients were determined when the dry densities of compacted bentonite were in the range of 1.4 - 1.8 g/㎤. Resaturation times were also calculated to analyze the ability of the compacted bentonite to retard water movement. The results obtained were as follows: Diffusion model described properly the water migration in unsaturated compacted bentonite. Water diffusion coefficients ranged from 4.30$\times$10$^{-6}$ $\textrm{cm}^2$/sec to 1.93$\times$10$^{-6}$ $\textrm{cm}^2$/sec, and decreased with increasing the dry density. The dry density of compacted bentonite was found to be an important factor to control the resaturation time by water. This study suggests that the domestic compacted bentonite should be a good barrier material against water movement in a landfill of hazardous wastes.

• Nuclear Engineering and Technology
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.62-72
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• 2001

The one-dimensional finite element program was developed to analyze the coupled behavior of heat, moisture, and air transfer in unsaturated porous media. By using this program, the simulation results were compared with those from the laboratory infiltration tests under isothermal condition and temperature gradient condition, respectively. The discrepancy of water uptake was found in the upper region of a bentonite sample under isothermal condition between numerical simulation and laboratory experiment. This indicated that air pressure was built up in the bentonite sample which could retard the infiltration velocity of liquid. In order to consider the swelling phenomena of compacted bentonite which cause the discrepancy of the distribution of water content and temperature, swelling and shrinkage factors were incorporated into the finite element formulation. It was found that these factors could be effective to represent the moisture diffusivity and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity due to volume change of bentonite sample.

• Proceedings of the Korean Radioactive Waste Society Conference
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• 2017.10a
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• pp.145-146
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• 2017

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.35 no.11
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• pp.7-14
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• 2019

The compacted bentonite buffer is one of the major components of an engineered barrier system (EBS) for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW), and it is considered the best candidate for the buffer material. The buffer is located between disposal canisters and near-field rock mass, and it interrupts the release of radionuclide from disposal canisters and protect them from the penetration of groundwater. At initial disposal condition, degree of saturation of the compacted bentonite buffer decreases because of high thermal quantities released from the disposal canisters. However, the degree of saturation of the compacted bentonite buffer gradually increases caused by inflow of groundwater. The saturated and unsaturated behavior of the buffer is a very important input data since it can determine the safety performance of EBS. Therefore, this paper investigated water retention capacity (WRC) for the Korean compacted bentonite buffer. The WRC of the compacted bentonite buffer was derived by measuring volumetric water content and water suction when temperature variation was between 24℃~125℃ considering decrease of degree of saturation with respect to temperature increase. The WRC was also derived with the same volumetric water content under the room temperature condition, and it showed 1~15% larger water suction than high temperature condition.

• Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society
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• v.36 no.10
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• pp.33-39
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• 2020

A geological repository has been considered as an option for the disposal of high-level radioactive waste (HLW). The HLW is disposed in a host rock at a depth of 500~1,000 meters below the ground surface based on the concept of engineered barrier system (EBS). The EBS is composed of a disposal canister, buffer material, backfill material, and gap-filling material. The compacted bentonite buffer is very important since it can restrain the release of radionuclide and protect the canister from the inflow of ground water. The saturation of the buffer decreases because high temperature in a disposal canister is released into the surrounding buffer material, but saturation of the buffer increases because of the inflow of ground water. The unsaturated properties of the buffer are critical input parameters for the entire safety assessment of the engineered barrier system. In Korea, Gyeongju bentonite can be considered as a candidate buffer material, but there are few test results of the unsaturated properties considering temperature variation. Therefore, this paper conducted experiment of soil-water characteristic curve for the Gyeongju compacted bentonite considering temperature variation under a constant water content condition. The relative error showed approximately 2% between test results and modified van-Genuchten model values.