Experimental study of the nanoclays effects on soil permeability reduction to preparing Landfill liners vs leachate

Abstract

The present study attempt to investigate the soil permeability behavior in landfill liners, which is very valuable in controlling municipal waste leachate runaway. In this regard, laboratory experiment is conducted on 20 soil samples which are modified with 0%, 3%, 6% and 9% nanoclays, respectively. For this purpose, permeability test are performed for each case of samples with various nanocaly contents and obtained permeability results are compared. The nature of the utilized nanoclay, in this research, is of the mentomorillonite type. According to the results of the study, by increasing the nanoclay percentage from 0 to 9, the soil permeability reduces. The permeability in samples with 0% nanoclay reduces from 3.16×10 -4 cm/s to 4.09×10-7cm/s by increasing the naniclay percentage up to 9%. This value for acidic conditions made by leachate (pH = 6) is 2.12×10-5 cm/s; which also reduces to 6.22×10-7 cm/s by nanoclay ratio increasing with the same percentage. The obtained resultsrepresents the capability of nanoclays to controlling the municipal waste leachate runaway in landfill liners.