Commissioning the mini centrifuge and clay liner testing

Abstract

This senior report focuses on commissioning the new (mini) centrifuge, and preliminary testing of a model clay liner. The first objective of the project was commissioning the newly acquired centrifuge. The primary goal of the testing program was to measure volumetric changes of a clay for various effective normal stresses. The clay samples used were from Red Pine Landfill near Bathurst, New Brunswick. Currently Jacques Whitford is testing liner samples at lg to study swelling behavior. The prevalent method takes approximately two weeks for the test to complete. Theoretically, the mini centrifuge can reduce the testing time into hours rather than days, thus reducing costs and waiting time. In order to prove centrifuge modeling is comparable to conventional swell testing, test results from both the bench test, and the centrifuge are compared. The variables studied in the program were: water contents, bentonite percentages, and g force levels.