ARTICLE IN PRESS

Geotextiles and Geomembranes 24 (2006) 64–71

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Technical note

Evaluation of a geosynthetic capillary barrier

Kevin D. Park1, Ian R. Fleming,2
Department of Civil and Geological Engineering, University of Saskatchewan, Canada S7N 5A9
Received 12 April 2005; received in revised form 9 June 2005; accepted 12 June 2005
Available online 2 November 2005

Abstract

This paper introduces a new type of geosynthetic product, namely a geosynthetic capillary break (GCB) which provides a similar
functionality to that of a traditional soil capillary break. This new product, manufactured similar to a geosynthetic clay liner and
composed of non-woven geotextiles needle-punched on both sides of a fine-grained material can be used as part of an engineered cover
system to reduce oxygen transport and net percolation in potentially acid generating mining wastes.
The unsaturated hydraulic properties of the geotextile, fine-grained rock flour, as well as cover soil and mine tailings were determined
in order to develop a set of inputs for a numerical model of an engineered cover system. The results of the modelling showed that the
inclusion of the geosynthetic capillary barrier (GCB) acts to decrease suction developed in the overlying cover materials during drainage.
This increased pressure head allows the overlying materials to remain at a higher degree of saturation, potentially reducing both oxygen
and moisture ingress into the waste.
r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Geotextile; Rock flour; Capillary break; Waste cover; Water retention function; Hydraulic conductivity function

1. Introduction of an engineered cover system for mining wastes. Several

Tailings or waste rock containing sulphide minerals
which come into contact with oxygen and water will
generate sulphuric acid resulting in acid mine drainage
(Nicholson et al., 1989). Traditional engineered cover
systems are designed by selecting a series of soils with
sufficient textural contrast to create layers of elevated
saturation with the goal of reducing oxygen diffusion and
water infiltration into the waste material (O’Kane et al.,
1998).
The purpose of this paper is to introduce a novel concept
in which this same functionality is created through the use
of non-woven geotextiles in a new type of manufactured
geocomposite material. The authors propose that by
combining a non-woven geotextile with an overlying fine-
grained rock flour, a capillary barrier effect will develop. A
geocomposite incorporating a thick non-woven with a
layer of fine-grained rock flour might thus be used as part
Corresponding author.
E-mail address: ian.fleming@usask.ca (I.R. Fleming).
1
Graduate student.
2
Associate professor.
thousand square metres of prototype product have been
manufactured for testing and evaluation in the laboratory
and under field conditions.
This paper will present the unsaturated hydraulic
properties of the components of the geosynthetic capillary
barrier (GCB) as well as those for the tailings and soil
cover materials utilized to evaluate the GCB. These
properties are then used as inputs in a simulation of
seepage in order to evaluate the influence of the geocom-
posite on suction and water content profiles within an
engineered cover system incorporating the proposed GCB.
2. Background
The capillary barrier effect has been extensively studied
by Nicholson et al. (1989), Akindunni et al. (1991),
Stormont and Morris (1998), O’Kane et al. (1998) Bussière
et al. (2003), along with numerous others. Their works have
shown that capillary barriers are placed within an
engineered cover system in order to limit inward oxygen
transport and also to reduce the migration of pore water
into the underlying waste.

0266-1144/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.geotexmem.2005.06.001
 ARTICLE IN PRESS
K.D. Park, I.R. Fleming / Geotextiles and Geomembranes 24 (2006) 64–71
A capillary barrier is designed as an unsaturated system
and involves the selective layering of materials with
significantly different textures. A coarser-grained material,
such as a sand or gravel, is commonly placed below a finer-
grained material, such as a silt, to achieve such an objective
(Nicholson et al., 1989; Rowlett, 2000). Under hydrostatic
or infiltration conditions, the suction increases with
elevation above the water table. However, the suction in
the coarser layer is limited to a low value corresponding to
its residual condition (Nicholson et al., 1989). At this low
value of suction, the finer-grained material will remain
saturated, as shown in Fig. 1, from Barbour (1990).
Nicholson et al. (1989) showed that the effective
diffusion coefficient for oxygen decreases up to four orders
of magnitude as the degree of saturation increases from 0%
to 100% for a given soil. Therefore, the inclusion of a
capillary barrier as part of an engineered cover system will
reduce inward oxygen transport due to the presence of a
near-saturated fine-grained layer of material above the
waste. It must be recognized that the small thickness of the
Fig. 1. Profiles of pressure head and volumetric moisture content vs.
elevation for silt over sand under conditions of constant infiltration rate
(from Barbour, 1990. Used with permission of the author).
65
saturated fine-grained rock flour layer in the GCB
(approximately 1 cm) will result in a relatively larger
oxygen concentration gradient and resulting diffusive flux
than would be the case for a thicker soil cover. This effect
will be partially offset by the very low oxygen diffusion
coefficient of the saturated rock flour; however, it will be a
key aspect of laboratory and field testing to evaluate the
extent to which oxygen ingress is mitigated by the GCB
product.
Stormont and Morris (1998) concluded that a capillary
barrier is also a suitable means to prevent downward
moisture movement. Since the water content of the finer-
grained material is increased above that associated with
free drainage, the storage capacity of the material is
increased. An increase in the storage capacity in the
overlying material allows more precipitation to remain
stored in the cover system and, therefore, available for
subsequent release by evaporation (Bruch, 1993) or
evapotranspiration and, therefore, allows less moisture to
move downward into the waste material.
Works by Henry (1990, 1995), Stormont and Morris
(2000) and Henry and Holtz (2001) have evaluated the use
of geotextiles used as moisture-limiting barriers in un-
saturated soils. Their work focused on the change in
hydraulic behaviour of an unsaturated, layered soil system
due to the inclusion of a non-woven geotextile and
concluded that the placement of the geotextile is effective
in mitigating moisture migration in unsaturated soils.
The most important property in the design of a capillary
barrier is the soil water characteristic curve or water
retention curve (Fredlund et al., 2002). There has been
some work done to characterize the unsaturated behaviour
of non-woven geotextiles. In particular, Stormont et al.
(1997) evaluated the water retention functions of four non-
woven, polypropylene geotextiles using the hanging col-
umn test (Klute, 1986). Their results showed that the
geotextile water characteristic curves (GWCC) were similar
to those for pea gravel. Stormont and Morris (2000),
Lafleur et al. (2000), Ho (2000), and Knight and Kotha
(2001) produced similar findings.
Lafleur et al. (2000) and Iryo and Rowe (2003)
examined, in detail, the measured water retention functions
and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity functions for
geotextiles. Their research focused on the applicability to
non-woven geotextiles of the various relationships, origin-
ally developed for soils, to predict the hydraulic conduc-
tivity function geotextile from the, more easily measured
water retention function (Childs and Collis-George, 1950;
Gardner, 1958; van Genuchten, 1980; Fredlund et al.,
1994). Their works suggested that such equations originally
developed for soils adequately predicted the unsaturated
hydraulic behaviour of non-woven geotextiles.
3. Design concept
Considering the issues as discussed above, relating to the
unsaturated properties of geotextiles and fine-grained soils,
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66 K.D. Park, I.R. Fleming / Geotextiles and Geomembranes 24 (2006) 64–71
Cover Soil / Growth
Medium
Geotextile
Rock Flour
2-3 cm
Geotextile
Mining Waste
Fig. 2. Schematic of geosynthetic capillary barrier.
the proposed GCB product is presented in Fig. 2. It is
intended that this geocomposite will combine the moisture
limiting ability of the non-woven geotextile with the
potential oxygen limiting ability of the fine-grained rock
flour.
This paper presents the potential application of the new
geocomposite product in the context of a capillary barrier
application for a mine tailings cover system; although there
are other potential applications for the product such as
controlling moisture migration in highway embankments
or mitigating moisture movement into landfills. Because of
the challenges associated with very thin layers in a capillary
barrier and the potential for poor performance in sloping
cover systems (Bussière et al., 2003; Richardson, 1997), the
scenario considered in this paper will be for the cover of
essentially flat-lying materials (such as tailings) in order to
ensure flow conditions that are essentially one-dimensional.
In order to evaluate the GCB, the following require-
ments have been addressed at a preliminary level; i.e. in
terms of ‘‘proof of concept’’:
1. Determine the pertinent unsaturated hydraulic proper-
ties of materials used to evaluate the geosynthetic break.
2. Model the geosynthetic capillary break as part of an
engineered cover system.
The capillary break must satisfy two criteria in order to
be successful:
1. The geotextile must remain close to its residual water
content in order to provide a potential barrier against
moisture migration (Stormont and Morris, 1998); and
2. the fine-grained material must remain near saturation to
mitigate downward oxygen diffusion (Nicholson et al.,
1989; Akindunni et al., 1991; Kisch, 1959; Bussière
et al., 2003)
4. Theory
4.1. Water retention curves
The water retention (or water characteristic) curve can
be defined as the relationship between the volumetric water
content of the soil and the soil suction (Fredlund and
Rahardjo, 1993). In this paper, this concept will be
extended to other porous materials, specifically non-woven
geotextiles. For soil, the water characteristic curve can be
shown to have three distinct stages (Fredlund and
Rahardjo, 1993):
1. Pre air-entry stage: soil suctions are too small to
overcome the capillary forces holding the water within
the largest pores in the soil, the soil does not drain and
the volumetric water content remains constant;
2. Transition stage: the largest pores begin to drain,
allowing air to enter the structure, pores of decreasing
size are drained as the suction is increased; and
3. Residual stage: characterized by a very slow decrease in
volumetric water content as suctions are considerably
increased. The water content within the soil is no longer
controlled by capillary forces, rather by other phenom-
ena such as absorption or adhesion (Aubertin et al.,
2003).
Fredlund and Xing (1994) presented a closed form
equation to represent the water retention function for a
given material.


lnð1 þ ðc=hr ÞÞ 1
yi ¼ y s 1
  mf  , (1)
lnð1 þ ð106 =hr ÞÞ ln e þ ðc=af Þnf
where ys is the saturated volumetric water content, c (kPa)
the suction, af (kPa) the fitting parameter corresponding to
the inflection point and somewhat related to the air-entry
value of the soil, nf the fitting parameter related to the rate
of desaturation of the soil in the transition phase, mf the
fitting parameter related to the curvature of the function in
the high suction range and hr the constant used to represent
the soil suction at the residual water content (usually
estimated to be 106 kPa).
4.2. Hydraulic conductivity functions
As the suction applied to a porous media increases, the
water content tends to decrease. This decrease in water
content leads to discontinuities in the water phase within
the soil structure, reducing the effective porosity. This
effect reduces the area available for water flow and
therefore the hydraulic conductivity of the soil decreases.
An equation to approximate the hydraulic conductivity
function for a given soil from its water retention function
was developed by Fredlund et al. (1994). The resulting
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K.D. Park, I.R. Fleming / Geotextiles and Geomembranes 24 (2006) 64–71 67

equation is (tailings) and a candidate cover soil to overlay the GCB

PN
i¼j ððyðe
y
Þ
yðcÞÞ=eyi Þ y0 ðeyi Þ
k w ¼ k s PN
i¼1 ððyðe
yÞ
ys Þ=eyi Þ y0 ðeyi Þ
where kw (m/s) is the calculated conductivity, ks (m/s) the
saturated conductivity, y the volumetric water content, y is
a dummy variable of integration representing the log of
negative pore-water pressure, i is the interval between the
range of j to N, j is the least negative pore water pressure to
be described, N is the maximum negative pore water
pressure to be described, c (kPa) the value for suction and
y0 i is the first derivative of Eq. (1).
Similar equations have also been proposed by Childs and
Collis-George, (1950), Gardner (1958), and van Genuchten
(1980) to estimate hydraulic conductivity functions from
the water characteristic curves. However, for the purpose
of our research, Eq. (2) will be used.
5. Methods and materials
5.1. Characterization of material properties
Four materials were examined for the evaluation of the
geosynthetic break. The non-woven geotextile and rock
flour make up the GCB itself. A typical waste material
and provide protection were also characterized. The
measured grain size distributions for the materials are
, (2)
shown in Fig. 3.
The proposed geotextile for use in the capillary barrier is
a non-woven, polypropylene, needle punched, continuous
fibre geotextile distributed by Terrafix Geosynthetics Inc.
as Terrafix 1200R. Table 1 shows additional physical
properties of the geotextile reproduced from the manufac-
turer’s specifications.
The fine-grained material used in this study was a finely
ground nepheline syenite rock flour. The product used for
testing is distributed as ‘‘Industrial Grade #75’’ by L.V.
Lomas Chemicals in Ont., Canada. Pertinent product
information obtained from the manufacturer is presented
in Table 2.
Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting (HBM&S) of Flin
Flon, MB, provided mine tailings to be used in this study.
The tailings were dark grey in colour and were obtained
from HBM&S’s tailings management area. The tailings
were approximately 2 months old at the time of sampling.
Ten 45-gallon drum samples were collected and trans-
ported to the University of Saskatchewan. The samples
were sealed until the start of the testing. Samples from each
drum were tested in order to confirm uniformity of grain
size within the samples (see Fig. 3).

100

90

80
Rock Flour
70

60
% Finer Than

Tailings
50
Cover Soil
40

30

20

10

0
10 1 0.1 0.01 0.001
Grain Size (mm)

Fig. 3. Grain size distributions for tested materials.

Table 1
Properties of nonwoven geotextile (Terrafix, 2004)

Mass per unit area (g/m2) AOS (mm) Thickness (mm) Porosity Ks (m/s)

550 0.05–0.15 4.0 0.82 1.5  10
3

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The cover soil used in the testing was spoil-obtained The axis-translation technique is used if suctions greater
from a commercially owned gravel pit. The pit, ASL than 10 kPa are required. This type of cell was initially
Saskatoon’s East Pit, was located approximately 15 km developed as a testing apparatus for soils; and the same
East of Saskatoon, SK. The soil occurred in a uniform procedures can be applied for geotextiles. However, due to
layer in a kame and esker complex and the material was the small thickness of the sample (approximately 4 mm),
collected from a spoil pile on site. The soil was light brown the cell must be weighed accurately (nearest 0.01 of a gram)
in colour, fine to medium grained and can be classified as in order to determine the precise volume of water that is
SM to ML. lost for each suction increment. Also, care must be taken in
handling the cell to ensure that no water is forced in or out
5.2. Experimental programme of the sample during the weighing process. Fig. 4 shows the
measured water retention functions of the four materials
The single specimen pressure plate cell (Fredlund, 2000) fitted with Fredlund and Xing (1994) parameters (shown in
was utilized to measure the water retention functions for Table 3). The water retention curve for the geotextile is
the four materials. For this study a 0.5 bar high-flow measured under a nominal load of 6.3 kPa.
porous stone (Soilmoisture Equipment Corp.) was used for
the measurement of the water retention function of the
geotextile, while a 3 bar stone was utilized for the soil, 5.3. Hydraulic conductivity functions
tailings and rock flour. Sample diameters of 80 and 64 mm
were used for the geotextile and soils, respectively. The The Fredlund et al. (1994) method was utilized to predict
procedure used to measure the drying curve is as follows. A the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity functions for the
saturated sample is placed on top of the saturated porous materials. Lafleur et al. (2000) suggested that this method
disc. The elevation of the outlet tube is lowered in was valid to predict the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity
approximately 1 cm increments and the specimen is allowed functions for non-woven geotextiles under low suctions.
to drain to equilibrium at each suction increment.
Table 3
Table 2 Fredlund and Xing (1994) parameters for tested materials
Properties of rock flour
Material af (kPa) nf mf hr (kPa) ys
Property Value
Cover 10.9 2.0 1.20 1E+06 0.42
Specific gravity 2.61 Geotextile 1.45 4.3 1.77 1E+06 0.82
Melting point (1C) 1020 Rock flour 59.5 4.7 0.58 1E+06 0.44
Bulk density (Mg/m3) 1.33–1.52 Tails 8.1 2.8 1.20 1E+06 0.47

0.9

0.8

0.7
Geotextile
Volumetric Water Content

0.6
Tailings Cover Soil
0.5

0.4
Rock Flour
0.3

0.2

0.1

0.0
0.1 1 10 100 1000
Suction (kPa)

Fig. 4. Water retention functions of tested materials.


K.D. Park, I.R. Fleming / Geotextiles and Geomembranes 24 (2006) 64–71
1.E-02
1.E-03
1.E-04
Hydraulic Conductivity (m/s)
1.E-05
1.E-06
1.E-07
1.E-08
1.E-09
1.E-10
1.E-11
1.E-12
0.1
Fig. 5. Hydraulic conductivity functions of tested materials.
Values of saturated hydraulic conductivity for the cover
soil, rock flour and tailings were determined in the
laboratory as 2.4  10
7, 6.0  10
7 and 8.3  10
5 m/s,
respectively. The saturated hydraulic conductivity for the
geotextile was taken as the specified value of 1.5  10
3 m/s
(Table 1). Fig. 5 shows the estimated hydraulic conducti-
vity functions.
5.4. Numerical simulation
A numerical simulation was carried out for typical
conditions of flat-lying tailings overlain by cover soil with
and without a GCB. The simulation was carried out using
a finite element model of steady-state saturated/unsatu-
rated flow (SEEP/W, GeoStudio, 2004). The geometry for
the engineered cover system was selected based on the
works of Nicholson et al. (1989), Barbour (1990), and
Akindunni et al. (1991). A 2.5 m thick layer of tailings is
overlain by a 1.0 m thick layer of cover soil. The GCB is
modeled as a 2 cm thick layer in between the tailings and
the cover soil. Steady-state infiltration fluxes of 1  10
6,
1  10
7 and 1  10
8 m/s were applied as a surface
boundary condition and the pressure head at the base of
the tailings was held constant at 0 m. The functions shown
in Figs. 4 and 5 were utilized as the hydraulic input
functions for the model. Fig. 6 shows the pressure profiles
computed from the numerical analysis.
Fig. 6 illustrates that even under conditions of steady-
state infiltration, significant negative pressure heads (suc-
tions) may develop in the cover soil. This becomes more
pronounced as the infiltration rate is reduced from 1  10
6
to 1  10
8 m/s. The inclusion of the GCB decreases
suction in the materials above the top of the waste just as
occurs when using a coarse soil layer (Nicholson et al.,
ARTICLE IN PRESS
69
Geotextile
Tailings
Rock Flour
Cover Soil
1 10 100 1000
Suction (kPa)
1989). Nicholson stated that a material will not transmit
suctions to overlying materials which are greater than the
suction at its residual water content. The residual water
content for the geotextile is reached at a suction of less than
10 kPa. Therefore, theoretically, the suction immediately
above the geotextile will not be greater than 10 kPa under
conditions of steady-state infiltration. The rock flour has
an air entry value of approximately 40–50 kPa and,
consequently, will remain saturated over the entire range
of infiltrative fluxes.
6. Discussion and conclusions
The objectives of this paper were to show that the
inclusion of the geosynthetic capillary barrier (GCB) may
be effective as part of an engineered cover system to control
net percolation into potentially acid generating mine waste.
Upon determination of the unsaturated hydraulic func-
tions for the two materials it appears that, in theory, a
capillary barrier would developed when a layer of the finely
grained rock flour is placed over the top of the non-woven
geotextile depending on the location of the water table.
From the results of numerical simulation, it can be
concluded that the GCB potentially decreases suction in
the materials immediately above the geotextile under
conditions of steady-state infiltration. This, however, is
highly dependant on the position of the water table as well
as the individual material functions (Akindunni et al.,
1990).
This decrease in suction allows the overlying soil to
remain at an elevated degree of saturation. An increase in
the degree of saturation is advantageous for an engineered
cover system for two reasons. First, the increase in
degree of saturation lowers the effective oxygen diffusion
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70 K.D. Park, I.R. Fleming / Geotextiles and Geomembranes 24 (2006) 64–71
3.5
3.0
2.5
Elevation (m)
2.0
q = 1x10-8 m/s
1.5
q = 1x10-7 m/s
1.0
0.5 GCB
No GCB
0.0
-2.4 -2.1 -1.8
Fig. 6. Computed pressure profiles.
coefficient for the material, reducing inward oxygen
transport to the waste (Nicholson et al., 1989). The fine-
grained rock flour will remain saturated and thus exhibit a
low oxygen diffusion coefficient. This effect may be
sufficient to reduce inward oxygen transport; however,
more work is required to evaluate the degree to which this
effect will be significant, given the limited thickness of the
GCB. Second, the reduction in suction allows for higher
losses from the near-surface soils due to evaporation or
evapotranspiration (Stormont and Morris, 1998).
Therefore, according to this preliminary modeling, the
GCB will potentially act to mitigate both downward
oxygen and moisture movement into the underlying waste
under the conditions modeled. GCB product has been
manufactured for laboratory and field testing in order to
verify the findings reached in this study.
Acknowledgements
The authors wish to acknowledge Terrafix Geosynthetics
Inc., O’Kane Consultants Inc. as well as the Natural
Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada
(NSERC) for research funding. We also appreciate the
efforts of Prof. S. L. Barbour of the University of
Saskatchewan and the staff of O’Kane Consultants Inc.
for providing insightful comments regarding all aspects of
the research.
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