Insight on the Void Ratio–Suction Relationship of Compacted Bentonite during Hydration

Investigation on swelling characteristics of buffer/backfill materials during hydration is an important issue in the design of artificial barriers in high-level radioactive waste (HLW) disposal repositories. In this work, for clarifying the characteristic of void ratio–suction relationship for compacted bentonite on hydration path, suction-controlled swelling deformation tests under constant vertical stresses 0.001~40 MPa were carried out on compacted bentonite specimens. Four different types of void ratio-suction curves indicated that swelling-collapse behavior under hydration depends on suction and over-consolidation ratio (OCR), based on which the swelling index was defined. Then, equations were proposed for describing the swelling-collapse characteristic of void ratio–suction curves. Simulation results of suction-controlled swelling deformation tests show that the different types of the hydration deformation curves could be well described by the proposed equations. Obviously, the proposed equations could be used for description and prediction of swelling characteristics of compacted bentonite during hydration, which is also of great importance for the safety assessment of the HLW repositories.

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