Issue |
E3S Web Conf.
Volume 195, 2020
4th European Conference on Unsaturated Soils (E-UNSAT 2020)
|
|
---|---|---|
Article Number | 04003 | |
Number of page(s) | 7 | |
Section | Special Session on Energy Geotechnics | |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1051/e3sconf/202019504003 | |
Published online | 16 October 2020 |
Microstructural and hydro-mechanical behaviour of bentonite pellets and powder mixtures
1 Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, CIMNE, Barcelona, Spain
2 Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), 92260 Fontenay-aux-Roses, France
* Corresponding author: author@e-mail.org
Binary mixtures of high-density MX-80 bentonite pellets (80%) and bentonite powder (20%) at hygroscopic water content have been recently considered as an alternative engineered barrier system for the long-term disposal of radioactive wastes. These mixtures display a dry density of around 1.49 Mg/m3 on pouring and present components with multi-modal pore size distributions that significantly evolve during the hydro-mechanical paths. To better understand the hydro-mechanical behaviour of this multiple porosity mixture, the contribution initially focuses on describing the initial state, as well as the main microstructural features determined by mercury intrusion porosimetry tests for the mix and each of the components (pellets and powder). Afterwards, hydro-mechanical results of both components and the mixture are presented. The hydraulic results focus on the water retention and water permeability, while the mechanical tests concentrate on the compressibility properties on loading.
© The Authors, published by EDP Sciences 2020
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