Hydro-mechanical behaviour of binary bentonite pellet and powder mixtures

Binary mixtures of high-density MX-80 bentonite pellets (80%) and bentonite powder (20%) at hygroscopic water content have been recently considered as an alternative engineered barrier system for the long-term disposal of radioactive wastes. These mixtures display a dry density of around 1.49 Mg/m3 on pouring and present components with multi-modal pore size distributions that significantly evolve during the hydro-mechanical paths. To better understand the hydro-mechanical behaviour of this multiple porosity mixture, the contribution initially focuses on describing the initial state, as well as the main microstructural features determined by mercury intrusion porosimetry tests for the mix and each of the components (pellets and powder). Afterwards, hydro-mechanical results of both components and the mixture are presented. The hydraulic results focus on the water retention and water permeability, while the mechanical tests concentrate on the compressibility properties on loading.