PERMEABILITY OF SALTSTONE MEASUREMENT BY BEAM BENDING
One of the goals of the Saltstone variability study is to identify (and, quantify the impact of) the operational and compositional variables that control or influence the important processing and performance properties of Saltstone mixes. A performance property for Saltstone mixes that is important but not routinely measured is the liquid permeability or saturated hydraulic conductivity of the cured Saltstone mix. The value for the saturated hydraulic conductivity is an input into the Performance Assessment for the SRS Z-Area vaults. Therefore, it is important to have a method available that allows for an accurate and reproducible measurement of permeability quickly and inexpensively. One such method that could potentially meet these requirements for the measurement of saturated hydraulic conductivity is the technique of beam bending, developed by Professor George Scherer at Princeton University. In order to determine the feasibility of this technique for Saltstone mixes, a summer student, David Feliciano, was hired to work at Princeton under the direction of George Scherer. This report details the results of this study which demonstrated the feasibility and applicability of the beam bending method to measurement of permeability of Saltstone samples. This research effort used samples made at Princeton from a Modular Caustic side solvent extraction Unit based simulant (MCU) and premix at a water to premix ratio of 0.60. The saturated hydraulic conductivities for these mixes were measured by the beam bending technique and the values determined were of the order of 1.4 to 3.4 x 10{sup -9} cm/sec. These values of hydraulic conductivity are consistent with independently measured values of this property on similar MCU based mixes by Dixon and Phifer. These values are also consistent with the hydraulic conductivity of a generic Saltstone mix measured by Langton in 1985. The high water to premix ratio used for Saltstone along with the relatively low degree of hydration for MCU based mixes leads to high total and capillary porosities. These two conditions generally lead to higher permeabilities as has been well documented in the literature for typical cementitious pastes in water. Therefore, it is not unexpected that the hydraulic conductivities of these Saltstone mixes are relatively high.
- Research Organization:
- Savannah River Site (SRS), Aiken, SC (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- DE-AC09-96SR18500
- OSTI ID:
- 923832
- Report Number(s):
- WSRC-TR-2007-00437; TRN: US0802190
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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