Soil mixture with bentonite and fly ash for bottom liner

in landfill in Hanoi
Chau Lan Nguyen1*, Long Hai Chu2
1
Civil engineering department, University of Transport and Communications, Vietnam
2
ATP student, University of Transport and Communications, Vietnam
nguyenchaulan@utc.edu.vn, *Corresponding author

Abstract: Soil mixture is widely used for bottom liner in landfill site. However, there is
limited number of landfills, which have a soil and bentonite mixture for liner system in
Hanoi. Therefore, this paper focus on physical and mechanical properties of soil mixture
with bentonite and fly ash in order to use the material for landfill site in Vietnam. From
the hydraulic conductivity results, it was found that an optimum content of clay mixture
with bentonite is about 10%, whereas soil mixture of bentonite-fly ash mixture was about
15%, which reach a standard value for bottom layer.
Keywords: bentonite, fly ash; soil and bentonite-fly ash mixture; hydraulic conductivity,
landfill

Introduction
Currently, Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) generation in Hanoi is about 6,400 tons/day. The
MSW amount is treated mainly by landfilling in 8 municipal centers and waste treatment sites
at district level. The largest landfilling site in Hanoi is Nam Son landfill, which can receive and
process daily approximately 3,800 to 4,200 tons. In this landfill, MSW are compacted and
buried as shown in Fig.1. In large-scale facilities such as Nam Son landfill, Xuan Son landfill
and Kieu Ky center, sanitary landfill processing is applied for waste disposal. Leachate from
these landfills are collected and treated. However, for other landfill the leachates are not treated
well or simply handled through natural lagoon that cause pollution to the ground water.

a) b)

Fig. 1 Nam Son landfill site. (a) Nam Son landfill at active cell, (b) Nam Son landfill at closed
cell with HDPE cover on the top.

1
There are many types of bottom layer for landfill site. However, soil and bentonite mixture is
commonly applied for liners in landfill in many countries because of its advanced
characteristics in both viewpoints of economy and techniques. There are a lot of experiment
conducted to find out the changing of hydraulic conductivity according to bentonite content
and compaction density in bentonite mixture. Won et al., (2002) reported that for the mixture
with dry density of 1.6 Mg/m3, the hydraulic conductivity decreases rapidly with increasing
bentonite content and were less than 10-9m/s when the bentonite content is higher than 10% by
weight. Muhunthan (2015) found that hydraulic conductivity decreases with increasing
bentonite. According to Meier et al., (2017), a significant decrease in hydraulic conductivity
(k) occurs with increasing bentonite content such that extremely low k value (≤10 -10 m/s) can
be achieved for bentonite content ≥ 10 %. In addition, compacted fly ash-bentonite mixtures
can be used for bottom liner.
However, there is limited research about using soil bentonite, soil fly ash mixture for
landfill liner in Vietnam. Therefore, this research focuses on assessing the use of fly ash and
bentonite mixture as potential liner materials in order to achieve the above-mentioned purpose.

Materials and Methods

Materials
The undisturbed soil samples were collected from drill holes in Thanh Xuan district, Vietnam.
These samples were coated with plastic tube in order to keep the moisture content unchanged.
Then they were transported to the laboratory to determine the physical and mechanical
properties.
Bentonite is manufactured by An Phat Joint Stock Company, Thanh Hoa, Vietnam with some
important properties such as specific gravity, viscosity, stability, moisture content and pH (see
Table 1).

Table 1: Properties of bentonite

Properties Requirements Results Test method

Specific gravity 1,05 ÷ 1,15 1,05 Mud balance
18 ÷ 45 22 ÷ 26 Hopper 700/500ml
Viscosity
30 ÷ 90 36 ÷ 40 Hopper 1500/1000ml
Water separation < 30ml/30 minutes 18 Dehydration instrument
pH 7÷9 9 pH instrument
Sand proportion < 6% 0,2 Sand proportion instrument
Thickness of clay 1 ÷ 3ml/30 minutes 2 Dehydration instrument
overcoat
Glue proportion > 95% 98 By bakers
Stability < 0,03 g/cm3 0,02 Cylindrical gauge 100ml
and mud balance

2
 1 minute: 20 ÷ 30mg/cm2 27
Static shear 2
Static-shear dynamometer
10 minutes: 50 ÷ 100mg/cm 55

Table 2: Properties of Fly ash

Properties Unit Results Method

Strength activity index

%
7 days 71.2
ASTMC311
28 days 85,3

Autoclave expansion % 0,031 ASTMC151

Amount retained on 45µm % 30,60 Sieve analysis

Chemical composition of fly ash %

SiO2 53,88

K2O 3,40
TCVN
Na2O 0,67
7131:2002
Fe2O3 6,70

CaO 4,27

Fly ash is manufactured by Thien Phuc Joint Stock Company, Hanoi, Vietnam. There are
several properties such as physical properties and chemical properties, which were mentioned
in Table 2. The properties of the bentonite and the fly ash in this research are similar to other
previous researches.

Methods
In this research, three types of experiments were conducted on: 1) soil mixtures with 3-12%
bentonite, 2) mixtures with 5-15% of fly ash, and 3) mixtures with 5-15% bentonite-fly ash
with a constant bentonite-fly ash ratio of 4:1 by dry mass basis. Physical and mechanical of
soil samples before and after mixing were conducted according to ASTM standard (see Table
3).

3
Table 3: Experiments Standard

Experiments Standard
Water Content ASTM D 2216
Unit Weight ASTM D 2937-00
Grain Size Analysis Using LA-950 Laser Particle Size Analyzer
Atterberg Limits ASTM D 4318
Automatic compaction ASTM D 698
Hydraulic Conductivity ASTM D 5084-10

In the scope of this paper, automatic compaction was applied for compaction test. Soil sample
was compacted by automatic rammer with the number of drops of the rammer equal 25 blows
and soil was divided to 3 layers as Proctor standard (ASTM D 698).

For hydraulic conductivity test, samples were compacted and saturated before conducting
hydraulic conductivity test. The Falling Head Test Method was conducted following ASTM
standard (D5084-10). The hydraulic conductivity equipment was shown in Fig. 2 below.

The hydraulic conductivity can be calculated as follows:

aL h (1)
k=
At ( )
ln 0
h1

Where:
k: coefficient of permeability
ho: initial height of water (132 cm)
a: area of the burette (3.462 cm2)
h1: final height of water = ho - Δh
L: length of soil column (4 cm)
t: time required to get head drop of Δh
A: area of the soil column (33.166 cm2)

Fig. 2 Hydraulic conductivity equipment

4
Results and Discussion
Physical Property Results

Fig. 3 Grain size distribution curve

LA-950 Laser Particle Size Analyzer was used to determine the graduation of soil, and the
grain size distribution curve is shown in Fig. 3. In addition, physical test results also are
presented as below:
 Natural water content: 25,16%
 Plastic limit (PL): 19.21%
 Liquid limit (LL): 27.28%
The soil sample is clay.

Mechanical Property Results

Automatic Compaction Test
The result of automatic compaction test for soil samples is shown in Fig. 4. Then from this
figure, the optimum moisture content and maximum dry density is 16.4% % and 1.737 g/cm 3,
respectively.

1.80

1.75  d max
Dry density (g/cm )

1.70
3

1.65

1.60

1.55

Wopt
1.50
8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30

Wa te r conte nt (%)

Fig. 4 Automatic compaction curve for soil sample

5
 1.90

S oil+ fly a s h
S oil+ mixture (80% flya s h + 20% Be ntonite )
S oil+ Be ntonite
1.85
Dry density (g/cm3)

1.80

1.75

1.70
-2 0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Pecentage of mixture by mass (%)

Fig. 5 Automatic compaction curve for soil and soil mixture sample

Fig.5 shows that the dry density of soil mixture with fly ash is increased from 0% to 7% and
after 7%, it was reduced gradually. Whereas, soil bentonite mixture and soil mixture with both
bentonite and fly ash are increased when increasing percentage of mixture.

Hydraulic Conductivity Test

The average hydraulic conductivity for the clay sample is about 4.7x10 -9 m/s. Hydraulic
conductivity versus addition contents is also shown in Fig. 5. From the figure, it is shown that
the hydraulic conductivity of soil mixture with fly ash is not acceptable for landfill liner when
fly ash content is increased from 5% to until 15%. In case of soil mixture with bentonite and
soil mixture with bentonite and fly ash, hydraulic conductivity is reduced when increasing
mixture content. By mixing 10% bentonite, the hydraulic conductivity lower than the required
performance of waste landfills in Vietnam, which corresponds to 1.0 × 10 -9 m/s, can be
achieved. For the case of mixture bentonite and fly ash, hydraulic conductivity is acceptable
for landfill liner until mixing of 15% (see Fig.5).

6
 1E-7

Soil + bentonite
Soil+ mixture (with constant ratio 4:1 fly ash and Bentonite )
Hydraulic conductivity (m/s) Soil+ fly ash

1E-8

1E-9

0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Percentage of mixture (%)

Fig. 6 Hydraulic conductivity of soil and soil mixture

The result of experiment indicates that k is decreased with the increase in the bentonite
content. This result is quite similar with results in the report by Cho (2002). The primary role
of the bentonite in all the mixture is to serve as a high swelling, low hydraulic conductivity, to
minimize seepage of liquids (groundwater, leachates in landfills, pure-phase organic liquid,
etc.) through the mixture. Bentonite is small particles which can fill up the air void among
soil’s particles. That decreases hydraulic conductivity k and increases in the performance of
the landfill.

Conclusion
This research is conducted to evaluate the changing of hydraulic conductivity depending on
bentonite and fly ash proportion. There are some important conclusions have been given as
below:

• The hydraulic conductivity of clay soil-bentonite mixture decreases rapidly with the
increase of bentonite content. By mixing 10% bentonite, the hydraulic conductivity is
acceptable for bottom liner in landfill according Vietnamese standard.
• The hydraulic conductivity of clay soil-fly ash mixture increase with the increase of fly
ash content.
• The optimized 15% bentonite-fly ash mixture can also be used as potential material for
bottom liner system of landfill in Hanoi.

Acknowledgement

This research was supported by the UTC fund. Authors would like to express sincerly thank
to UTC to provide the funding and facilities.

7
References
[1] ASTM D5084 - 2010 Standard Test Methods for Measurement of Hydraulic Conductivity
of Saturated Porous Materials Using a Flexible Wall Permeameter (2010).
[2] ASTM D698-2012 Standard Test Methods for Laboratory Compaction Characteristics of
Soil Using Standard Effort (2012).
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and Limestone Dust in Philadelphia’, Journal of Materials in Civil Engineering, 17(5), pp.
711–717. doi: 10.1061/(ASCE)MT.1943-5533.0000214.
[4] Cho, W. J. (2002) ‘Hydraulic Conductivity of Compacted Soil Bentonite Mixture for A
Liner Material in Landfill Facilities’, Environment Engineering Resources, 7, pp. 121–127.
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