In coastal areas, excessive exploitation of groundwater causes seawater intrusion. In artificial recharge of aquifer remediation process, the replacement of saltwater and freshwater with each other causes colloid release, and permeability also decreases. In this paper, the aquifer samples containing minimal clay mineral(mainly illite) in Dagu River aquifer were used. Adopting horizontal column experiments, we studied the influences of seepage velocity and ionic strength on particle release, as well as the relationship between them. In the column experiments, the Critical Salt Concentration(CSC) of the Dagu River aquifer was determined as 0.05 mol L^(-1) approximately. This result was basically consistent with the DLVO theoretical calculation. For the constant seepage velocity, the salinity descending rate and partical release were slower, and the peak of particle concentration was lower. However, the total amount of released particles was almost constant at different salinity descending rate. For constant salinity descending rates, the peak of particle concentration decreased as seepage velocity increased, but the total amount of released particles rose up. The experiments also indicated the existence of a critical seepage velocity, which dropped with the decrease of salt concentration. When the concentration of Na Cl solution decreased from 0.17 mol L^(-1) to 0.06 mol L^(-1), the critical seepage velocity decreased from 3 cm min^(-1)to 2.5 cm min^(-1), which is consistent to the results predicted by DLVO theory.
ZHOU JunLIN GuoqingLIU JianboZHANG PeidongGONG Lei
Seawater intrusion has become one of serious environmental problems in coastal areas. During the replacement of saline water by fresh water in the aquifers, in-situ clay could be released, transport and deposit in the porous media due to the change of hydrodynamic and geochemical conditions, which resulted in the increasing of particle size, plugging of pores and reduction of the permeability. Batch experiments and sand column experiments were explored to study the relationships between the flocculation of in-situ clay and geochemical conditions, by changing ionic strength and ionic type of clay suspension. Column outflow was analyzed for suspended particles and electrical conductivity. The total percentage of colloid straining and interception distribution in porous media was calculated. The results indicate that porous media had an effect on the interception of clay colloid particles with about 10 percent clay colloids captured due to the rough surfaces and spatial structure of porous media. Ionic strength played a key role on the permeability reductions. The higher ionic strength is, the greater the amount of colloidal particles trapped. Ionic type also had a significant effect on the interception of clay colloid particles. Ripening was the main mechanism for the interception within porous media when the bulk solution was potassium chloride while blocking happened when the bulk solution was sodium chloride. The distribution of clay colloids in porous media was heterogeneous. The closer to the sand column inlet was the less interception of clay colloids was. The results can provide the scientific basis for preventing the water sensitivity during the process of salty aquifer restoration.
