Hydraulic conductivity of natural clays permeated with simple liquid hydrocarbons

Abstract

The hydraulic conductivity, k, of clayey soils is strongly influenced by the physicochemical properties of permeating liquid hydrocarbons. Tests on natural Sarnia soils mixed with pure liquids at a void ratio of 0.8 yielded k values that increased from 5 × 10−9 to 1 × 10−4 cm/s as the dielectric constant of the permeant decreased from 80 to 2.Sequential permeation of compacted, water-wet samples (k ≈ 10−8 cm/s) showed no changes in hydraulic conductivity when permeated with water-insoluble hydrocarbons of low dielectric constant (benzene, cyclohexane, xylene). These hydrophobic liquids were forced through microchannels or macropores and displaced less than 10% of the pore water from samples at a void ratio of unity.Permeation with water-soluble alcohols resulted in extensive removal of the pore water and up to 10-fold increases in k. Subsequent permeation with liquid aromatics of very low dielectric constant resulted in 1000-fold increases in k with only 30% of the pore space occupied by the aromatics. Association liquids such as alcohol that are mutually soluble in water and the aromatics seem to be required to initiate huge increases in k over testing periods of short duration. Key words: hydraulic conductivity, liquid hydrocarbons, clay barriers, dielectric constant.

Importance of soil physical characteristics for petroleum hydrocarbons phytoremediation: A review

“…In particular, Fernandez and Quigley (1985) for example showed that soil hydraulic characteristics can alter PAH adsorption sites, such that when the soil is too wet the adsorption is driven by soil organic matter content, while in the dry situations clay content has the major role to adsorb the substances (Chiou and Shoup, 1985). With the presence of hydrocarbons in soil, generally, the limitations will be poor moisture-holding capacity (due to hydrophobicity), low permeability (due to clogging) and nutrient deficiencies (because of adsorption and toxicity).…”

Folyadék-visszatartás, folyadékvezetés és porozitás összefüggései vízzel és/vagy szerves folyadékkal telített talajokban I. Folyadék-visszatartó képesség — Szemle

“…és a fázisok közötti kölcsön-hatások (duzzadási-zsugorodási folyamatok, hiszterézis jelenségek, dezaggregáció, repedések keletkezése stb.) következtében (FERNANDEZ & QUIGLEY, 1985;LENHARD & BROOKS, 1985;BRADFORD & LEIJ, 1995;GRABER & MINGELGRIN, 1998;RUBIN et al, 1998;DICARLO et al, 2000;MAKÓ & HERNÁDI, 2012;ASGARZADEH, et al, 2014). Mikromorfometriai vizsgálatok (pl.…”

An experimental and constitutive investigation on the chemo-mechanical behaviour of a clay

“…Consolidation due to a difference in chemical composition of the pore water was investigated by Fernandez & Quigley (1985, 1991 and later by Hueckel (1997) and Boukpeti et al (2004). They studied the influence of a single organic contaminant on the compressibility properties of Sarnia clay, which is an Na-montmorillonite with traces of Ca-smectite.…”