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

The cylinder is 34 mm in diameter and 72 mm in height. [...]a pressure of 34.5 kPa was imposed on the solution and pressure measuring devices were separately installed at the inlet and outlet to measure the pressure drop across the flow path and the hydraulic gradient was 21.9. Linear relationships between the ratio of time to swelling strain and swelling time for the MB specimens under five different dry densities (Figure 7) can be fitted by Equation (3): tε=a+bt where ε is the unloading swelling strain of an MB specimen; t represents the swelling time (h); and a and b are fitting parameters. Since a and b are related to the initial dry density, their values under each corresponding initial dry density of MB specimen were discussed and fitting equations for the linear relationships between a and b, and dry density were obtained (Equations (4) and (5)). [...]the relationship between vertical swelling strain of MB specimen and vertical pressure levels could express the constitutive relationship between vertical swelling strain and vertical swelling stress. [...]the swelling deformation of MB specimens was suppressed.