Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Geo-EnvironMeet 2025: Geoenvironmental Contamination and Waste Containment, Kentucky, Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, 2 - 05 Mart 2025, cilt.2025-March, ss.298-303
Compacted bentonite/sand-bentonite mixtures are recommended as buffer/backfill material for engineering barriers in deep geological repositories for disposal of high-level nuclear waste (HLW) in many countries. The design and long-term performance of nuclear repositories are extremely important for the environment and human health. The buffer material, which was initially unsaturated, may become re-saturated hundreds of years after the repository is closed. While the saturation of buffer material decreases with high temperature and evaporation, the saturation is expected to increase with groundwater intrusion. Therefore, the soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) of the unsaturated soil is an essential parameter in geotechnical engineering. However, measurement of the SWRC takes a lot of time and may be inaccurate. Hydraulic property analyzer (HYPROP) evaporation method is widely used for estimating the water retention curve of soil samples. Due to its high accuracy and reliability, the HYPROP evaporation method was used to determine the water retention curves of sand-bentonite mixtures in the presence of ulexite. Ulexite, a boron mineral commonly used in various industries, is characterized by its very low thermal expansion. To increase the thermal resistance of sand- bentonite mixtures, ulexite can be used. To prepare the soil mixture, 10% and 20% ulexite were added to the mixtures which are bentonite/sand-bentonite ratios 0.10 and 0.20. According to the analysis results, the ulexite addition increased the water retention capacity of the 10% bentonite mixtures but did not affect that of the 20% bentonite mixtures.