Effects of pore water chemical composition on the hydro-mechanical behavior of natural stiff clays

Boom Clay and Ypresian Clays have been considered as potential geological host formations for radioactive waste disposal in Belgium. Considering the significant differences in pore water chemical composition between several sites involving these two formations as well as the possible evolution of the chemical composition during the large lifespan of a radioactive waste disposal, it appeared important to investigate the effects of pore water chemical composition on the hydro-mechanical behaviors of these two potential host formations. In this study, these effects were investigated by carrying out specific cedometer tests. Different compositions were considered for this purpose: distilled water, synthetic site water, and Sodium Chloride solutions at concentrations of 15 and 30 g/L. Clear effects of pore water chemical composition on the hydro-mechanical behavior were observed: increasing pore water salt concentration gave rise to (i) increase of cedometric modulus E-aed, permeability K and consolidation coefficient C-v; and (ii) decrease of compression slope c'(o), swelling slope c'(s), and secondary compression coefficient C-alpha e, which is in agreement with the diffuse double layer theory and the clay particle aggregation as identified by microstructural analyses. Furthermore, the pore water chemical composition effects were found to be mineralogy, stress state and salt concentration dependent: (i) Ypresian Clays with higher smectite content showed clearer chemical effect on the coefficient of consolidation C-v; (ii) the chemical effects on compressibility and swelling capacity parameters were found to be attenuated with increasing vertical stress; and (iii) the increase of chemical effect with increasing pore water salinity was limited to a certain salt concentration. The competition between the physico-chemical and mechanical effects was identified: the pore water chemical composition effect is clear only in the low-stress range where the hydro-mechanical behavior is dominated by the physico-chemical effect. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.