The Effect of Graphite, Brass and Copper Powders and Bronze Additives on the Thermal Conductivity of Bentonite

Compacted bentonite is used as a buffer material in the nuclear waste repositories and solid waste landfills. Especially, in nuclear waste storage repositories, around energy piles and buried high voltage cables heat conduction is very important and high thermal conductivity is desired. In the present study, graphite, brass and copper powders and bronze additives were added to bentonite and change in thermal conductivity values were determined. Experiments were performed with Tempos thermal conductivity analyzer on the bentonite mixtures with 20–10% additives at same water content (45%) value. According to the test results, while 20–10% bronze, brass powder and copper powder added to bentonite mixtures thermal conductivity increased but this value did not change significantly, however an increase was observed in the value of thermal conductivity of 20–10% graphite added bentonite mixtures. In addition to, we found that the value of thermal conductivity of 20% graphite added bentonite mixtures bigger than 10% graphite.