A simplified method to determine the wall thickness of GCL composite cutoff wall

Geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) have recently been incorporated into the traditional soil walls to form GCL composite vertical cutoff walls for waste containment applications in contaminated sites. This novel cutoff wall has been used in engineering practice; however, the design method of this compo...

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Main Authors: Sheng-Yi Deng, He-Fu Pu, Zhong-Ping Chen, Tao Xu, Ming Min
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2025-09-01
Series:Results in Engineering
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Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123025020171
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author Sheng-Yi Deng
He-Fu Pu
Zhong-Ping Chen
Tao Xu
Ming Min
author_facet Sheng-Yi Deng
He-Fu Pu
Zhong-Ping Chen
Tao Xu
Ming Min
author_sort Sheng-Yi Deng
collection DOAJ
description Geosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) have recently been incorporated into the traditional soil walls to form GCL composite vertical cutoff walls for waste containment applications in contaminated sites. This novel cutoff wall has been used in engineering practice; however, the design method of this composite cutoff wall has rarely been reported. Considering the contaminant transport mechanisms of advection, hydrodynamic dispersion and adsorption, this study proposes a simplified method to determine the thickness of the GCL composite wall by decoupling the advective and the dispersive fluxes. Error analyses are conducted by comparing the proposed simplified method with an existing analytical solution. The results indicate that the relative error of the simplified method is small (= -7.7 % ∼ 5.1 %) for the conditions commonly encountered in cutoff wall design (i.e., breakthrough criterion of Cb/C0 ≤ 0.1 and Peclet number of 1 ∼ 100). The proposed simplified method is easy to use and can provide a tool for convenient design and evaluation of GCL composite cutoff wall in contaminated sites.
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institution Kabale University
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publishDate 2025-09-01
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spelling doaj-art-36d59f2725c74506bd336ceedcdc37fe2025-08-20T03:32:18ZengElsevierResults in Engineering2590-12302025-09-012710594510.1016/j.rineng.2025.105945A simplified method to determine the wall thickness of GCL composite cutoff wallSheng-Yi Deng0He-Fu Pu1Zhong-Ping Chen2Tao Xu3Ming Min4School of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, ChinaState Key Laboratory of Intelligent Geotechnics and Tunnelling, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; Corresponding authors at: State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Geotechnics and Tunnelling, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Geotechnics and Tunnelling, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; Corresponding authors at: State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Geotechnics and Tunnelling, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China.State Key Laboratory of Intelligent Geotechnics and Tunnelling, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China; College of Civil and Transportation Engineering, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, ChinaSchool of Civil and Hydraulic Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, Hubei 430074, ChinaGeosynthetic clay liners (GCLs) have recently been incorporated into the traditional soil walls to form GCL composite vertical cutoff walls for waste containment applications in contaminated sites. This novel cutoff wall has been used in engineering practice; however, the design method of this composite cutoff wall has rarely been reported. Considering the contaminant transport mechanisms of advection, hydrodynamic dispersion and adsorption, this study proposes a simplified method to determine the thickness of the GCL composite wall by decoupling the advective and the dispersive fluxes. Error analyses are conducted by comparing the proposed simplified method with an existing analytical solution. The results indicate that the relative error of the simplified method is small (= -7.7 % ∼ 5.1 %) for the conditions commonly encountered in cutoff wall design (i.e., breakthrough criterion of Cb/C0 ≤ 0.1 and Peclet number of 1 ∼ 100). The proposed simplified method is easy to use and can provide a tool for convenient design and evaluation of GCL composite cutoff wall in contaminated sites.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123025020171GCL composite cutoff wallSimplified methodWall thicknessContaminant breakthrough time
spellingShingle Sheng-Yi Deng
He-Fu Pu
Zhong-Ping Chen
Tao Xu
Ming Min
A simplified method to determine the wall thickness of GCL composite cutoff wall
Results in Engineering
GCL composite cutoff wall
Simplified method
Wall thickness
Contaminant breakthrough time
title A simplified method to determine the wall thickness of GCL composite cutoff wall
title_full A simplified method to determine the wall thickness of GCL composite cutoff wall
title_fullStr A simplified method to determine the wall thickness of GCL composite cutoff wall
title_full_unstemmed A simplified method to determine the wall thickness of GCL composite cutoff wall
title_short A simplified method to determine the wall thickness of GCL composite cutoff wall
title_sort simplified method to determine the wall thickness of gcl composite cutoff wall
topic GCL composite cutoff wall
Simplified method
Wall thickness
Contaminant breakthrough time
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123025020171
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