Hydraulic sustainability of soil-bentonite cutoff walls subjected to cyclic wetting and drying

This study investigated the effect of cyclic wetting and drying on the backfill used in soil-bentonite (SB) cutoff walls. For this purpose, model SB vertical cutoff wall backfills were prepared comprising of a fine grained mortar sand and 2% bentonite (by total weight) and 4% bentonite (by total weight). Results of the study indicate that the volume change is influenced by the bentonite content, that is, the increase in volume change increased with increasing bentonite content.