Hydraulic and volume change behavior of guar gum amended granular bentonite for containment applications

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4. Hydraulic and volume change behavior of guar gum amended granular bentonite for containment applications

The macro-voids present in granular bentonite (GB) in Geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) does not seals in presence of high concentration salt solutions due to reduction in the osmotic potential. The maximum allowed hydraulic permeation rate 1×10^-9 m/sec would not be achieved under these circumstances. Further, a volumetric collapse of the barrier material induces distress to the leachate collection system and lead to the failure of the pipes. The ability of second-generation (2G) GCLs that contain polymer-amended GBs are currently explored by several researchers for containing the high ionic strength salt solutions. Guar gum is a sustainable biopolymer and has been successfully utilized for ground improvement applications. The guar gum forms a thick and viscous gel in the presence of water and salt solutions, which might help in clogging the macro-voids present in the compacted GB. The application of guar gum for improving the sealing ability of GB is not explored yet. The hydraulic and volumetric performance of guar gum-amended GB under the influence of self-weight of waste, salts present in the leachate was explored in this work. In this study, the results of hydraulic and volume change behaviour of guar gum-amended GB with high strength salt solutions and loading conditions were discussed to evaluate the ability of 2G liners to prevent the migration of the leachate to the environment. The experiment results with different percentages of the guar-gum with high concentration of three different ionic solutions were presented. The results were compared with the utilization of different synthetic polymers at present for containment of the waste having high concentration leachate.

9th International Congress on Environmental Geotechnics (ICEG2023)

Engineered Barriers