Performance of Ganga Sand with Bentonite as a Landfill Liner Material

The earliest method of waste disposal is dumping waste in landfills. The liner is one of the most important components of the landfill which prevents the passage of leachate to the subsoil. A landfill liner of specific properties in terms of swelling behavior, strength, and permeability is placed down beneath constructed landfills. The present study discusses the experimental investigation of Ganga sand and bentonite mixtures to obtained specific properties of landfill liners. Various laboratory investigations are carried out on the different proportions of sand–bentonite mixtures to evaluate the optimum mix proportion which meets the specified properties of landfills liner. It is found that the liquid limit and plastic limit of the sand–bentonite mixture increase as the percentage of bentonite increases, but there is a sharp increase after 20% bentonite content. The experiment findings indicate that the permeability and compressibility of the soil are significantly influenced by the soil type used in the mixtures. The optimum quantity of bentonite for river sand to attain very low permeability has been discovered to be 20%. Therefore, bentonite can be added as active clay to sandy soil in a suitable quantity to produce a cost-effective liner/barrier material, particularly for landfill applications.