Insights into the water retention behaviour of GMZ bentonite pellet mixture

Bentonite pellets are recognized as good buffer/backfill materials for sealing technological voids in high-level radioactive waste (HLW) repository. Compared to that of a traditional compacted bentonite block, one of the most important particularities of this material is the initially discrete pellets and the inevitable heterogeneous porosity formed, leading to a distinctive water retention behaviour. In this paper, water retention and mercury intrusion porosimetry (MIP) tests were conducted on pellet mixture (constant volume), single pellet (free swelling) and compacted block (constant volume) of GMZ bentonite, water retention properties and pore structure evolutions of the specimens were comparatively investigated. Results show that the water retention properties of the three specimens are almost similar to each other in the high suction range (>?10 MPa), while the water retention capacity of pellet mixture is lower than those of the compacted block and single pellet in the low suction range (<?10 MPa). Based on the capillary water retention theory (the Young–Laplace equation), a new concept ‘saturated void ratio’ that was positively related to water content and dependent on pore size distribution of the specimen was defined. Then, according to the product of saturated void ratio and water density in saturated void, differences of water retention properties for the three specimens at low suctions were explained. Meanwhile, MIP tests indicate that as suction decreases, the micro- and macrovoid ratios of pellet mixture and compacted block decrease as the mesovoid ratio increases, while all the void ratios of single pellets increase. This could be explained that upon wetting, water is successively adsorbed into the inter-layer, inter-particle and inter-pellet voids, leading to the subdivision of particles and swelling of aggregates and pellets. Under constant volume condition, aggregates and pellets tend to swell and fill into the inter-aggregates or inter-pellets voids. While under free swelling condition, the particles and aggregates in a single pellet tend to swell outward rather than squeezing into the inter-aggregate voids, leading to the expansion of the pores and even formation of cracks. Results including the effects of initial conditions (initial dry density and fabric) and constraint conditions (constant volume or free swelling) on the water retention capacity and pore structure evolution reached in this work are of great importance in designing of engineering barrier systems for the HLW repository.

     

辽西台里韧性剪切带糜棱岩中眼球状构造的成因分析

台里地区位于华北克拉通北缘东段,隶属于燕山元古代沉降带东南缘—山海关古隆起,该区域内发育一条NNE向的韧性剪切带。通过野外观察和显微分析,韧性剪切带主要由初糜棱岩—糜棱岩组成,发育眼球状构造,主要有σ和δ两种类型,具有左行走滑的特征。研究发现台里地区的眼球状构造并不都是由单个长石斑晶组成,其主要成因有:一种是先期存在的长英质脉体在后期经受拉长剪切变形和石香肠化作用形成的;另一种是原岩中斑晶受拉长剪切作用形成的。对韧性剪切岩石进行有限应变测量(Fry法、剪应变、运动学涡度),明确了剪切应变类型为拉长型,以简单剪切变形为主,岩石类型为LS构造岩。结合前人研究成果,中生代以来,受到太平洋板块的俯冲影响,辽西台里地区经受了强烈的伸展变形,因此,韧性剪切带是在张扭性的构造格局中形成。