Bentonite has been generally used as vertical cutoff barrier material and reported to have several problems regarding its low workability, drying shrinkage cracking by particle cohesion, and ineffective waterproof ability under sea water condition. In this study, the particle sealant, the furnace slag coated by the mixture of bentonite, sepiolite and guargum, was developed to compensate these weak points and the hydraulic conductivity of the particle sealant was evaluated. Drying shrinkage cracking and swelling index was estimated to find the optimal mixing ratio of bentonite, sepiolite and guargum. The hydraulic conductivity of the particle sealants having different amount of sealant (bentonite-sepioliteguargum mixture) coating the furnace slag was estimated using the rigid wall permeameter and flexible wall permeameter. The results showed that drying shrinkage cracking was not found in the bentonite-sepiolite mixture with 20% sepiolite contents and the results from free swelling tests for the sealant having 1 : 0.025, 1 : 0.05 and 1 : 0.075 of weight ratios of bentonite-sepiolite mixture and guargum under simulated sea water condition were higher than those for the bentonitesepiolite mixture without guargum under tap water condition. These three sealants were coated on the furnace slag with 50% and 60% of sealant in the particle sealant and the hydraulic conductivity was estimated. In the cases of the particle sealants having 20% sepiolite in the bentonite-sepiolite mixture and 1 : 0.075 weight ratio of the bentonite-sepiolite mixture and guargum, the hydraulic conductivity from the rigid wall permeameter was below $1.0{\times}10^{-7}$ cm/sec under simulated sea water condition. The hydraulic conductivity of the particle sealant having $1.0{\times}10^{-6}$~$1.0{\times}10^{-7}$ cm/sec by the rigid wall permeameter was estimated using the flexible wall permeameter and found to be below $1.0{\times}10^{-7}$ cm/sec.

Keywords: Particle sealant;Hydraulic conductivity;Benotnite;Sepiolite;Guar gum;Furnace slag;