Atterberg Limits of Sand-Bentonite Mixes and the Influence of Sand Composition

Indian Geotechnical Conference IGC2016 15-17 December 2016, IIT Madras, Chennai, India

ATTERBERG LIMITS OF SAND-BENTONITE MIXES AND THE INFLUENCE OF SAND COMPOSITION

Srikanth V1 1Research Scholar, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati – 781039 [email protected]

Anil Kumar Mishra2 2Assistant Professor, Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati, Guwahati – 781039 [email protected]

ABSTRACT: Sand-bentonite mixtures are assuming greater importance as geotechnical barrier materials in waste disposal schemes around the world and like with any other geotechnical soil structure, a comprehensive understanding on the engineering behavior of various components used in the making of a geotechnical barrier becomes a necessity. A review of literature indicated a host of variables influencing the engineering behavior of a barrier to various degrees, including and not limited to mineralogy of the soil, size and shape of particles, their interactions among themselves, interactions with water, interactions with any other pore fluid that may exist in the soil, pH, temperature, cation exchange capacity and quantity of cations in the soil pore fluid. Upon scrutiny it has been observed that most of the studies conducted were primarily focusing on the role of bentonite in the sand-bentonite mixture, studies highlighting the contributions of sand particle size, sand gradation etc. were very few even though sand forms the major component in most of the sand-bentonite mixtures being employed around the world. This study sheds some light on the plasticity characteristics of sand-bentonite mixtures with varying bentonite proportions and sand compositions. In the current study, locally available sand has been washed thoroughly and sieved for different particles sizes (fine sand and medium sand) and two commercially available bentonites were procured. Fine sand-bentonite (FS-B), medium sand-bentonite (MS-B) and fines sand-medium sand-bentonite (FS- MS-B) mixtures were made with bentonite proportion varying from 10 to 50 percent by dry weight in the mix and were tested for Atterberg limits. Liquid limit results indicated that, for a given bentonite content, FS-B, MS-B and FS-MS-B mixes exhibited different liquid limits and sand composition has a little influence on the liquid limits. Shrinkage limit results indicated that sand composition has a notable influence on the shrinkage characteristics of the sand-bentonite mixtures.

KEYWORDS: Atterberg limits, sand-bentonite mixtures, sand gradation, bentonite content.

limit of a sand-bentonite mixture generally depends 1 Introduction upon the clay concentration and the type of clay mineral Consistency limits proposed by Atterberg were initially present in the mixture. Apart from the above mentioned introduced into soil mechanics as means to classify soils criterion, Sivapullaiah et al. (1985) observed that the (Wroth and Wood, 1978). Atterberg limits are perhaps interactions between clay and sand particles also the oldest and most commonly used tests in the field of influences the plasticity characteristics, though no soil engineering (Sridharan and Rao, 1975). As time quantification of the same has been provided. Skempton progressed, attempts were made to correlate these (1944) indicated that liquid limit is particularly sensitive Atterberg limits with other engineering characteristics to particle size distribution of a soil. This study is an of soils so as to provide soil engineers on site with a attempt to understand the extent to which the particle better assessment of the soils being encountered (Wroth size distribution of sand can really influence the and Wood 1978, Sivapullaiah et al. 2000, Skempton atterberg limits of sand-bentonite mixtures. 1944, Sridharan and Nagaraj 2004). With sand- 2 Materials and Methods bentonite mixtures gaining importance as geotechnical barrier materials around the world, any information To study the influence of sand content, sand particle size leading to a better understanding of these complex and sand proportioning on the plasticity characteristics composite materials is a welcoming step. of sand-bentonite mixtures, a locally available sand was used in this study. Sand was sieved into two groups, i.e. A Liquid limit test is essentially a measure of viscous Fine sand (FS) (0.075 mm – 0.425 mm) and Medium resistance or shear strength of a soil that is so soft, it sand (MS) (0.425 mm – 2 mm), using a sieve shaker. approaches the liquid state (Sowers et al. 1959). Liquid Further, to study the influence of the bentonite quality 1 Atterberg limits of sand-bentonite mixes and the influence of sand composition on sand-bentonite mixtures, two commercially available bentonite content in the mixture, Fine sand-bentonite bentonites with different swelling properties namely mixtures exhibited higher shrinkage limits. Sridharan Bentonite-1 (B1) and Bentonite-2 (B2) were selected for and Prakash (2000) proposed that shrinkage limit is this study. Bentonite-1 is moderately swelling while, primarily dependent on the relative particle size Bentonite-2 is a high swelling bentonite. Geotechnical distribution of soils, unlike other consistency limits. characteristics of bentonites used in the study are presented in the Table 1. Liquid limit tests were performed on B1 and B2 using Casagrande liquid limit Table 1. Characteristics of Bentonites used in the study test apparatus. Properties Bentonite-1 Bentonite-2 Sand-bentonite mixtures used in the study were Particle size distribution prepared by mixing sand and bentonite, with bentonite proportion varying from 10 to 50 percent by dry weight Clay (%) 52.2 68.0 of the mixture. The study has been conducted in two Silt (%) 43.4 28.3 phases, in phase one, Fine sand-bentonite and Medium Sand (%) 4.4 3.7 sand-bentonite mixtures were tested for atterberg limits to check if there is any difference in the plasticity Atterberg limits behavior exhibited when different types of sand are Liquid limit (%) 346.0 609.0 mixed with bentonites. After confirming the differences, in phase two, fine sand-medium sand-bentonite Plastic limit (%) 33.0 41.5 mixtures were tested for atterberg limits. Sand used in Shrinkage limit (%) 23.0 10.4 phase 2 of the study was prepared by mixing fine sand and medium sand in proportions varying from 30:70 to 180 FS-B1 70:30. Since the sand-bentonite mixtures contained a 160 MS-B1 higher amount of non-plastic soil, liquid limit of the 140 FS-B2 mixtures was determined using cone penetration method MS-B2 as suggested by Sivapullaiah et al. (1985). 120 100 3 Results and Discussion 80 Influence of bentonite content, sand type and clay (%) Limit Liquid 60 mineralogy etc. on liquid limit of sand-bentonite 40 mixtures are presented in Figs. 1. Liquid limit was found to be increasing with increasing bentonite content. It can 20 be seen that, for any given bentonite content, Fine sand- 0 10 20 30 40 50 Bentonite Content (%) bentonite mixtures were exhibiting higher liquid limit values compared to Medium sand-bentonite mixtures Figure 1 Variation in Liquid limit of fine sand-bentonite (Srikanth and Mishra, 2016). Between Fine sand- and medium sand-bentonite mixtures with Bentonite bentonite and Medium sand-bentonite mixtures, content differences in liquid limits exhibited is higher in case of 90 mixtures with bentonite content greater than 30 percent. 30 F : 70 M Bentonite-2 is higher swelling bentonite and 80 40 F : 60 M subsequently, Fine sand-bentonite-2 and Medium sand- 70 50 F : 50 M bentonite-2 mixtures exhibited higher liquid limits. 60 F : 40 M 60 70 F : 30 M Role of sand proportioning on liquid limit of sand bentonite mixtures can be seen in Figs. 2 and Figs. 3. For 50 any given bentonite content, variation in liquid limits is 40 small (5% at the most) and for most cases, observed (%) Limit Liquid values were lying in between those exhibited by Fine 30 sand-bentonite mixtures and Medium sand-bentonite 20 mixtures. 0 10 20 30 40 50 Bentonite Content (%) Shrinkage limit results exhibited by Fine sand-bentonite and Medium sand-bentonite mixtures are presented in Figure 2 Variation in Liquid limit of fine sand-medium Figs. 4. Shrinkage limit was found to be decreasing with sand-bentonite-1 mixtures with Bentonite content increasing bentonite content and similar results were reported by Jong and Warkentin (1965). For the same

2 Indian Geotechnical Conference IGC2016 15-17 December 2016, IIT Madras, Chennai, India

180 were observed for any given bentonite content with the 30 F : 70 M variation being in the range of 5-15 percent. Upon 160 40 F : 60 M comparing Figs. 5 and 6, no particular trend in shrinkage 140 50 F : 50 M limit could be identified and further analysis is being 60 F : 40 M 120 70 F : 30 M carried out. Comparing Fine sand-bentonite, Medium 100 sand-bentonite and Fine sand-Medium sand-bentonite mixtures revealed that shrinkage limit is reducing 80 because of sand proportioning. Liquid Limit (%) Limit Liquid 60

40 45 20 0 10 20 30 40 50 40 Bentonite Content (%) 35 Figure 3 Variation in Liquid limit of fine sand-medium sand-bentonite-2 mixtures with Bentonite content 30 25 45 30 F : 70 M 20 40 F : 60 M 40 50 F : 50 M Shrinkage Limit (%) Limit Shrinkage 15 35 60 F : 40 M 70 F : 30 M 30 10 0 10 20 30 40 50 25 Bentonite Content (%) 20 FS-B1 Figure 6 Variation in shrinkage limit of fine sand-medium MS-B1 Shrinkage Limit (%) Limit Shrinkage sand-bentonite-2 mixtures with Bentonite content 15 FS-B2 MS-B2 10 Conclusions 0 10 20 30 40 50 Geotechnical barriers form an integral part of Bentonite Content (%) engineered waste disposal schemes around the world. Figure 4 Variation in shrinkage limit of fine sand- An improved understanding on the engineering behavior bentonite and medium sand-bentonite mixtures with of various component members used in the making of a Bentonite content barrier may lead to a better and optimized design of the 35 barrier system. Given the huge amounts of natural/enhanced soil being employed in making the geotechnical barriers, any reduction in the raw material 30 required would result in optimizing the necessary infrastructure for mining, processing and transportation 25 of raw material thereby reducing project costs involved. Reduced project costs can help promote the concept of 20 30 F : 70 M engineered waste disposal. 40 F : 60 M 50 F : 50 M Shrinkage Limit (%) Limit Shrinkage 15 The investigation of Atterberg limits of Fine sand- 60 F : 40 M bentonite, Medium sand-bentonite and Fine sand- 70 F : 30 M 10 Medium sand-bentonite mixtures has resulted in the 0 10 20 30 40 50 following understanding. Bentonite Content (%) 1. Liquid limit of a sand-bentonite mixture is Figure 5 Variation in shrinkage limit of fine sand-medium influenced by the particle size gradation of sand-bentonite-1 mixtures with Bentonite content sand, though the influence is small particularly in the lower bentonite contents. Shrinkage limit results exhibited by Fine sand-Medium sand-bentonite-1and Fine sand-Medium sand-bentonite- 2. Quality of bentonite has a major influence on 2 mixtures are presented in Figs. 5 and Figs. 6. Because liquid limit along with bentonite content. of sand proportioning, resulting in a different particle 3. Shrinkage limit was found to be decreasing size distribution curve for every other fine sand-medium with increasing bentonite content for Fine sand-bentonite mixture, different shrinkage limit values

3 Atterberg limits of sand-bentonite mixes and the influence of sand composition

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