REPORT ON CONSOLIDATION-INDUCED SOLUTE TRANSPORT

Consolidation in cohesive soils mainly focuses on compressibility of soils, but it affects solute transport in some cases. The consolidation process takes on particular significance for fine grained soils at high water content, such as dredged sediments, but has also been shown to be important for compacted clay liners during waste filling operation. Numerical investigation using CST1 and CST2 was reviewed on consolidation-induced solute transport in this paper, especially with the development of CST2 model, verification by comparing experimental results with numerical simulations, and cases studies regarding transport in a confined disposal facility (CDF) and during in-situ capping. The importance of the consolidation process on solute transport is accessed based on simulated concentration or mass breakthrough curves. Results indicate that neglecting transient consolidation effects may lead to significant errors in transport analyses, especially with soft contaminated cohesive soils undergoing large volume change.