Investigation on hydraulic properties of compacted GMZ bentonite used as buffer/backfill material

During the past decades, GMZ bentonite has been widely investigated for its use as buffer/backfill materials in China. Based on a comprehensive review of the former studies, achievements on experimental and theoretic works on the hydraulic aspects of compacted GMZ bentonite with consideration of temperature effects are presented in this paper. Water retention property of compacted GMZ bentonite depends on constraint conditions. Temperature effects on water-retention depend on constraint conditions and suction. The hysteresis behaviour is not obvious. Based on the test results, a revised water retention model was developed for considering the temperature effect. The saturated hydraulic conductivity of the densely compacted GMZ bentonite increases as dry density and temperature increases. A revised model, which considers temperature influence on water viscosity and the effective flow cross-sectional area of porous channels, for prediction of saturated hydraulic conductivity have been developed and verified. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of confined densely compacted GMZ bentonite samples decreases first and then increases with suction decrease from an initial value of 80 MPa to zero. With consideration of temperature effects and microstructure changes, a revised model for prediction of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity of compacted GMZ01 bentonite was proposed.