Modified geosynthetic clay liners bentonite for barriers of Cr (VI) in contaminated soil.

Hydroxy-Fe-Al and cetyltrimethylammonium bromide (CTMAB) were chosen to modified Na-bentonite (Na-bent). The characteristics of Na-bent and modified bentonites were determined with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy disperse spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectrum (FTIR) and zeta potential. It was found that CTMAB mainly entered the interlayer and hydroxy-Fe-Al groups were mostly loaded on the external surface of the Na-bent, respectively. The efficiency to remove Cr (VI) of Na-bent, organic modified bentonite (O-bent), inorganic modified bentonite (I-bent) and composite modified bentonite (Co-bent) followed the order: Co-bent > I-bent > O-bent > Na-bent. Adsorption experiments were carried out by the batch contact method. The highest removal rate of Cr (VI) by Co-bent was found to be 96.2% at optimal pH = 4. The Cr (VI) uptake on Co-bent from 50 mg/L solution rapidly attained equilibrium within 10 min, and the pesudo-second-order kinetic model could provide satisfactory fitting of the kinetic data (R2 = 0.999) compared to the intraparticle diffusion model (R2 = 0.585). The adsorption data were applied to the Langmuir, Freundlich, Temkin isotherm model. The Langmuir was found to be the most suitable equation to fit the experimental data (R2 = 0.956) with a high Cr (VI) adsorption capacity of 27.472 mg/g, and RL values (0.012-0.035) also indicated the adsorption could be accepted. The present study confirmed that Co-bent would be one of candidates for Cr (VI) adsorbent.

Study on pile drivability with one dimensional wave propagation theory.

Pile drivability is a key problem during the stage of design and construction installation of pile foundations. The solution to the one dimensional wave equation was used to determine the impact force at the top of a concrete pile for a given ram mass, cushion stiffness, and pile impedance. The kinematic equation of pile toe was established and solved based on wave equation theory. The movements of the pile top and pile toe were presented, which clearly showed the dynamic displacement, including rebound and penetration of pile top and toe. A parametric study was made with a full range of practical values of ram weight, cushion stiffness, drop eight, and pile impedance. Suggestions for optimizing the parameters were also presented. Comparisons between the results obtained by the present solution and in-situ measurements indicated the reliability and validity of the method.

Transient response of piles-bridge under horizontal excitation.

Moving ships and other objects drifting on water often impact a bridge's pile foundations. The mechanical model of the piles-bridge structure under horizontal forcing was established, and a time-domain approach based on Finite-difference Method was developed for analyzing the dynamic response of the piles-bridge structure. For a single pile, good agreement between two computed results validated the present approach. The slenderness ratio of the pile, the pile-soil stiffness ratio and the type of the structure influence the dynamic response of the piles-bridge structure. The computed results showed that the stiffness of the structure determines the dynamic response of the piles-bridge structure under horizontal forcing.