The objective of this paper is to evaluate the self- healing properties of a commercially-available geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) using flexible-wall permeameter. The GCLs are produced by the same factory, but the contents of bentonite are different. Also the hydraulic conductivities (HC) of GCLs with no defect are different. In this study, specimens were completely saturated under the backpressure of 20 kPa before the test. Permeability tests were performed on GCL specimens with penetrating flaw and also on specimens permeated with distilled water and CaCl2 solutions. The test results were presented and discussed. Experimental results showed that the GCL with penetrating flaw did not exhibit complete self-healing in the case of flaw. After 120 days, the hydraulic conductivity increased by approximately an order of magnitude. In addition, CaCl2 solutions had a significant influence on the hydraulic conductivity. The research findings might be of interest to researchers and engineers who design liners for landfills and other liquid containment facilities

This article presents test results for hydraulic conductivity and porosity structure of hardening slurries prepared of Portland cement, betonite, water and fluidal ashes from the combustion of hard and brown coal. The slurries were exposed to persistent filtering action (180 days) of liquids chemically aggressive to cement binders, i.e. distilled water, 0.5% solution of nitric acid, 1% solution of sodium sulphate, 1% solution of magnesium nitrate and 1% solution of ammonium nitrate. Samples exposed to filtration of tap water constituted the reference base. The research was into relations between hydraulic conductivity and pore structure parameters in slurries, as well as into the influence of the type of aggressive medium on leak tightness of slurries (their porosity and hydraulic conductivity).

This article presents ways of possible utilization and application of fl uidal combustion wastes as active additives to hardening slurries which are used to seal environment protection structures, i.e. cut-off walls in waste dumps and wastewater treatment plants. Cut-off walls are often exposed to fi ltrating action of eluates - polluted (aggressive) waters. Results of hydraulic conductivity tests of slurries after their long-term (210 days) fi ltration with eluates from a municipal waste dump and with tap water are presented. Porosity tests were also conducted to show the porosity structure of the fi ltered slurries. Additionally, compressive strength of slurries maturing in tap water and waste dump eluates was tested in parallel.

Heavy metal pollutants in the leachate of waste landfill are a potential threat to the environment. In this study, the feasibility of using municipal sewage sludge as barrier material for the containment of heavy metal pollutants from solid waste landfills was evaluated by compaction test and hydraulic conductivity test concerning compaction property, impermeability and heavy metal retardation. Results of the compaction test showed that the maximum dry density of 0.79 g·cm−3 was achieved at the optimum water content of about 60%. The hydraulic conductivities of compacted sewage sludge permeated with synthetic heavy metal solutions were in the range of 1.3×10−8 – 6.2×10−9 cm·s−1, less than 1.0 ×10−7cm·s−1 recommended by regulations for barrier materials. Chemical analyses on the effluent from the hydraulic conductivity tests indicated that the two target heavy metals, Zn and Cd in the permeants were all retarded by compacted sewage sludge, which might be attributed to the precipitation and adsorption of heavy metal ions. The results of this study suggest that specially prepared material from sewage sludge could be used as a barrier for waste landfills for its low permeability and strong retardation to heavy metal pollutants.

This paper compares numerical solutions of transient two-dimensional unsaturated flow equation by using different averaging schemes for internodal conductivities. Averaging methods such as arithmetic mean, geometric mean, upstream weighting, and integrated mean are taken into account, as well as a recent approach based on steady-state approximation. The latter method proved the most flexible, producing relatively accurate solutions for both downward and upward flow cases.

A fast reduction of a reservoir level may result in instability of an earth dam caused by the high pore water pressures that remain relatively high in the embankment. Moreover, the dissipation of the accumulated pore water pressures is highly dependent on the permeability of the materials used for the embankment and the storage characteristics of the reservoir. Therefore, in the design of embankment dams, the stability analysis under rapid drawdown loading conditions is an important design case. In this study, the influence of different permeability rates on dam stability under different cases of rapid drawdownwas investigated using the finite element method in SEEP/W and SLOPE/W of the GeoStudio with a case of the Lugoda dam in Ndembera catchment, Tanzania. The modeling process considers the time-dependent hydraulic conditions and the transient flow conditions using different water levels during rapid drawdown for evaluation of the factor of safety. From the 1m per day drawdown rate; the lowest minimum factor of safety value (0.90) was obtained from the 10 ^-7 m/s material permeability of the upstream zone of the dam. It means that, at a drawdown rate of 1m per day, there is a potential for failure of the embankment if the hydraulic conductivity value will be somewhere below 10 ^-6 m/s.