State-of-the-Art: Consolidation-induced contaminant transport for high water content geo-materials

This paper presents an overview of experimental and computational research that has been conducted with regard to consolidation-induced transport of contaminants for high water content geo-materials. Recent research has indicated that this transport mechanism has the potential to significantly alter the behavior of a given system. Practical applications in geoenvironmental engineering include impoundment of wastes in confined disposal facilities, mechanical dewatering, in situ remediation of contaminated source zones and in situ capping of contaminated sediments. However, current understanding of the significance of this process is limited with respect to typical materials and chemical concentrations, colloid-facilitated transport, constant rate-of-strain and centrifuge loading conditions and the expected impacts for realistic design scenarios in geoenvironmental engineering.