Coupled Chemical and Diffusion Model for Compacted Bentonite

A chemical equilibrium model has been developed for ion-exchange and to a limited extent for other reactions, such as precipitation or dissolution of calcite or gypsum, in compacted bentonite water systems. The model was successfully applied to some bentonite experiments, especially as far as monovalent ions were concerned. The fitted log-binding constants for the exchange of sodium for potassium, magnesium, and calcium were 0.27, 1.50, and 2.10, respectively. In addition, a coupled chemical and diffusion model has been developed to take account of diffusion in pore water, surface diffusion and ion-exchange. The model was applied to the same experiments as the chemical equilibrium model, and its validation was found pardy successful. The above values for binding constants were used also in the coupled model. The apparent (both for anions and cations) and surface diffusion (only for cations) constants yielding the best agreement between calculated and experimental data were 3.0×10-11 m2/s and 6.0×10-12m2/s, respectively. These values are questionable, however, as experimental results good enough for fitting are currently not available.