Effects of Post-compaction Residual Lateral Stress and Electrolyte Concentration on Swelling Pressures of a Compacted Bentonite

The effects of post-compaction residual lateral stress and salt concentration in the hydrating fluid on swelling pressures of compacted MX80 bentonite is brought out in this paper. In order to release the residual lateral stresses, following the static compaction process during preparation of specimens, compacted bentonite specimens were extruded from the specimen rings and then inserted back prior to testing them for swelling pressures in isochoric condition. The swelling pressure tests were carried out at several dry densities of the bentonite with distilled water and solutions of NaCl (0.1 and 1.0 M) as the hydrating fluids. With water, the test results showed that specimens that underwent extrusion and insertion processes exhibited about 10–15 % greater swelling pressures as compared to the specimens those that were compacted and tested. The influence of saline solutions was found to reduce the swelling pressure of the bentonite, but their impact was less significant at high compaction dry densities.