Prevention of Seepage of Unsaturated Clay by Chemical Treatment

The aim of the study is to seek a simple and inexpensive method to prevent the permeability rise of unsaturated clay caused by evaporation process and to raise its imperviousness. Taking Chengdu clay as an example, four treatment schemes were tried. Na2CO3 could reduce conspicuously the permeability of the saturated clay, but could not limit the permeability rise in the alternate wetting and drying process. NaOH had a similar effect to Na2CO3. NaCl could not only decrease the saturated hydraulic conductivity, but could also effectively contain the permeability rise caused by evaporation. CH3COONa had a similar effect to NaCl. The mechanism of Na2CO3, NaOH, NaCl and CH3COONa decreasing the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the clay is that Na+ transformed Ca-montmorillonites in the original clay into Na-montmorillonites and the transformation reduces the sizes of effective pores and the effective porosity of the clay.