Estimating the impact of pharmaceutical (diclofenac) in pore water on the vane shear strength of compacted soil

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4. Estimating the impact of pharmaceutical (diclofenac) in pore water on the vane shear strength of compacted soil

The growing consumption of pharmaceuticals has increased waste production. The high detection frequencies of pharmaceuticals in the environment have led to concerns about the potential impact of such wastes on soil and groundwater sources. Amongst various pharmaceuticals detected in the environment, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), especially diclofenac, are most prominently detected in the environment, especially in soils. However, our review observed limited research understanding of the relationship between soil and diclofenac contamination. Owing to this gap, this preliminary research aims to ascertain the effect of diclofenac on the undrained shear strength (Su) of residual soil. This study determines Su by conducting a miniature vane shear test. Though the soil Su can be determined using vane shear tests, developing a model to estimate Su is essential in understanding soil behavior across various environmental and contamination conditions. Models that consider the changing material properties of soil and the contaminants are typically beneficial in offering generalized and predictive insights by reducing time and resource consumption. A model combining the numerical and empirical relations from the literature is proposed to relate the Su with selected soil properties. The result of this study showed that the effect of diclofenac on soil Su is minimal due to the high dependence of Su on soil particle packing. The proposed model is also rated as very good based on the NashSutcliffe model efficiency coefficient (NSE) value of 0.93 and satisfactory (NSE of 0.63) for experimental data obtained in this study and literature, respectively.

4th Asia-Pacific Conference on Physical Modelling in Geotechnics (ACPMG2024)

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