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Water retention and compression behavior of MX80 bentonite pellet

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Abstract

Bentonite pellet/powder mixture has been considered as a possible sealing material in deep geological disposal of radioactive waste. As the hydro-mechanical behavior of such mixture is intimately related to that of single pellet, in this study, water retention tests and compression tests were performed on single MX-80 bentonite pellet to investigate its hydro-mechanical behavior. Mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) tests were also conducted to investigate the microstructure change with suction. The water retention test results show that the changes in water content and void ratio are significant in low suctions (< 59 MPa) with decreasing suction, as opposed to the case in high suction range (> 59 MPa). These significant changes are accompanied by the propagation of cracks. Results from compression tests show that the contact force of pellet rapidly increases in the beginning, reaches a peak and then decreases. Meanwhile, the contact stiffness and the breaking force of pellets show different variation tendencies in different suction ranges. Results from MIP tests indicate that the volume change of pellet upon wetting is attributed to the swelling of bentonite grain, the expansion of inter-grain pores and the generation of large cracks. At the meantime, the changes of pores at micro-scale and macro-scale, especially the wetting-induced cracks, notably affect the compression properties of pellet. These findings provide useful information for better understanding the overall behavior of bentonite pellet/powder mixture.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the China Scholarship Council (CSC). The supports provided by Ecole des Ponts ParisTech (ENPC) and Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN) are also greatly acknowledged. The authors also thank the Science and Technology Innovation Program of Hunan Province (Project 2021RC2004), the Research Fund Program of the Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering (Tongji University), Ministry of Education (Project KLE-TJGE-B2102) and the Open Research Fund Program of Key Laboratory of Metallogenic Prediction of Nonferrous Metals and Geological Environment Monitoring (Central South University), Ministry of Education (Project 2021YSJS17).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Geosciences and Info-Physics, Central South University, No. 932 South Lushan Road, Changsha Hunan, 410083, People’s Republic of China

    Zhao Zhang & Yong He

  2. Ecole Des Ponts ParisTech, Laboratoire Navier/CERMES, 6 et 8 Avenue Blaise Pascal, 77455, Marne La Vallée Cedex 2, France

    Zhao Zhang, Yu-Jun Cui & Jinwen Yang

  3. Institut de Radioprotection et de Sûreté Nucléaire (IRSN), Fontenay-aux-Roses, France

    Nadia Mokni

  4. Key Laboratory of Geotechnical and Underground Engineering of Ministry of Education and Department of Geotechnical Engineering, Tongji University, Shanghai, 200092, People’s Republic of China

    Zhao Zhang, Wei-Min Ye & Yong He

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  1. Zhao Zhang
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  2. Yu-Jun Cui
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Correspondence to Zhao Zhang.

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Zhang, Z., Cui, YJ., Yang, J. et al. Water retention and compression behavior of MX80 bentonite pellet. Acta Geotech. 17, 2435–2447 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-021-01428-x

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