Swelling Capacity and Hydraulic Conductivity of Polymer-Modified Bentonite under Saline Water Conditions

Abstract

Bentonite is widely used as a waterproof material in civil engineering. The swelling capacity and impermeability will be reduced in saline water conditions. A polymer-modified bentonite was used in this study, and the swelling characteristic and hydraulic conductivity in saline water were investigated. Results show that: the modified bentonite (MB) has good swelling characteristics and low permeability in saline water conditions; the unload swelling strain of MB in saline water conditions increased with rising swelling time; the final unload swelling strain of MB decreased with the increase of vertical pressure and increased with increasing initial dry density; and, as the swelling time increased, the swelling pressure increased rapidly at first and then decreased. Based on experimental results, this study obtained a linear relationship between the ratio of time to unload swelling strain and swelling time, a formula for load swelling strain that was related to initial dry density and vertical pressure, a linear relationship between the ratio of time to swelling pressure and swelling time, and an exponential relationship between swelling pressure and initial dry density. The MB can be used as a waterproof material in seepage-prone applications under saline environmental conditions in civil engineering works.

Adsorption of malachite green and chrysoidine‐Y by Sn‐pillared clay

“…Traditionally as well, clay pots had been used extensively to purify and store water, much before the electric ROs were invented (Annan et al., 2018). Bentonite (Bt) is an absorbent swelling clay due to which it has the potential to absorb large amounts of water (Xu et al., 2018). This property can increase its volume up to eight times the original.…”