Hydraulic Conductivity of Bentonite-Sand Mixture for a Potential Backfill Material for a High-level Radioactive Waste Repository

Hydraulic Conductivity of Bentonite-Sand Mixture for a Potential Backfill Material for a High-level Radioactive Waste Repository

The hydraulic conductivities in the bentonite-sand mixtures with high density were measured, and the effects of sand content and dry density on the hydraulic conductivity were investigated. The hydraulic conductivities of the bentonite-sand mixtures with a dry density of 1.6 Mg/㎥ and 1.8 Mg/㎥ are less than 10$^{-11}$ m/s when the sand content is not higher than 70 wt%. However at the sand content of 90 wt%, the hydraulic conductivity increases rapidly At the same dry density, the logarithm of hydraulic conductivity increases linearly with increasing sand content. The hydraulic conductivity of the bentonite-sand mixture can be explained by the concept of effective clay dry density, and using this concept, the hydraulic conductivities for the mixtures with various sand contents and dry densities can be estimated.