Numerical investigation of the effect of geosynthetic clay liner chemical incompatibility on flow and contaminant transport through a defective composite liner

A composite liner consisting of a geomembrane(GMB)and a geosynthetic clay liner(GCL)can be compromised by inorganic contaminants because of a defective GMB.When the composite liner with defective GMB is exposed to aggressive leachate conditions,the neglect of the chemical incompatibility of the GCL can potentially result in an underestimation of the leakage rate and flux through the composite liner.This paper proposed a numerical investigation on the effect of chemical incompatibility of GCL on the barrier performance of the composite liner with hole defect.Four cases with leachate solutions having varied cation valencies and ionic strengths were analyzed,in which the hydraulic conductivity of GCL was concentrationdependent.Both the effect of the chemical incompatibility of GCL and the mechanisms were analyzed.The incompatibility of GCL resulted in significant increases in leakage rate and flux through the composite liner by factors of up to 4.9 and 5.0,respectively.The incompatibility-affected area in GCL is located within 0.1 m from the center of the hole in the GMB.The coupled increase in the hydraulic conductivity of GCL and pore water concentration impacts the flux and leakage in a short period of time.With GCL chemical incompatibility considered,advection may dominate the contaminant transport through GCL.

Contributions of root cell wall polysaccharides to Cu sequestration in castor(Ricinus communis L.)exposed to different Cu stresses

Cell wall polysaccharides play a vital role in binding with toxic metals such as copper(Cu)ions.However, it is still unclear whether the major binding site of Cu in the cell wall varies with different degrees of Cu stresses.Moreover, the contribution of each cell wall polysaccharide fraction to Cu sequestration with different degrees of Cu stresses also remains to be verified.The distribution of Cu in cell wall polysaccharide fractions of castor(Ricinus communis L.) root was investigated with various Cu concentrations in the hydroponic experiment.The results showed that the hemicellulose1(HC1) fraction fixed 44.9%–67.8% of the total cell wall Cu under Cu stress.In addition, the pectin fraction and hemicelluloses2(HC2) fraction also contributed to the Cu binding in root cell wall,accounting for 11.0%–25.9% and 14.1%–26.6% of the total cell wall Cu under Cu treatments, respectively.When the Cu levels were ≤ 25 μmol/L, pectin and HC2 contributed equally to Cu storage in root cell wall.However, when the Cu level was higher than 25 μmol/L, the ability of the pectin to bind Cu was easy to reach saturation.Much more Cu ions were bound on HC1 and HC2 fractions, and the HC2 played a much more important role in Cu binding than pectin.Combining fourier transform infrared(FT-IR) and twodimensional correlation analysis(2 D-COS) techniques, the hemicellulose components were showed not only to accumulate most of Cu in cell wall, but also respond fastest to Cu stress.