Protective Layer Design in Landfill Covers based on Frost Penetration
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 128, Issue 9
Abstract
We develop a design procedure to determine the minimum thickness of a protective soil layer over a barrier layer in a landfill cover design. The procedure equates the minimum thickness of the overlying protective layer to the predicted extreme freezing-events depth that may occur in the landfill design life. This procedure is applicable to Resource Conservation and Recovery Act Subtitle C hazardous waste landfills and any landfill designed to encapsulate hazardous waste from the environment for long periods of time. This procedure was formulated by the Uranium Mill Tailings Remedial Action Project’s Technical Assistance Contractor to protect radon and infiltration barriers from degradation over a 200-year minimum design life. The procedure uses common soil parameters, a personal computer version of the modified Berggren equation, and site-specific daily maximum-minimum temperature data compiled for a minimum of 30 years to compute frost depths. The computed frost penetration magnitudes are then used with a Gumbel extreme-value probability distribution to predict frost depths for recurrence intervals corresponding to a design life that exceeds the record of observed data.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Aitken, G. W., and Berg, R. L. (1968). “Digital solution of modified Berggren equation to calculate depths of freeze and thaw in multilayered systems.” U.S. Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory Special Rep. No. 122, Hanover, N.H.
Aldrich, H. P., Jr. (1956). “Frost penetration below highway and airfield pavements.” Highway Research Bulletin No. 135, Washington, DC.
Aldrich, H. P., and Paynter, H. M. (1953). “Analytical studies of freezing and thawing of soils, first interim report.” Tech. Rep. No. 42, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England Division, Arctic Construction and Frost Effects Laboratory.
Army and Air Force. (1988). (Depts. of the Army and the Air Force). “Arctic and subarctic construction calculation methods for determination of depths of freeze and thaw in soils,” Army TM 5-852-6, Air Force AFR 88-19, Vol. 6.
Benson, C. H., Abichou, T. H., Olson, M. A., and Bosscher, P. J.(1995). “Winter effects on hydraulic conductivity of compacted clay.” J. Geotech. Eng., 121(1), 69–79.
Benson, C. H., and Othman, M. A.(1993). “Hydraulic conductivity of compacted clay frozen and thawed in situ,” J. Geotech. Eng., 119(2), 276–294.
Berggren, W. P.(1943). “Prediction of temperature distribution in frozen soils.” Trans. Am. Geophys. Union, 3, 71–77.
Brown, W. G.(1964). “Difficulties associated with predicting depth of freeze of thaw.” Can. Geotech. J., 1(4), 215–226.
Chamberlain, E. J., and Gow, A. J.(1979). “Effect of freezing and thawing on the permeability and structure of soils.” Eng. Geol. (Amsterdam), 13, 73–92.
Daniel, D. E. (1987). “Earthen liners for land disposal facilities.” Geo-technical practice for waste disposal ’87, GSP No. 13, ASCE, Reston, Va., 21–39.
Daniel, D. E., and Benson, C. H.(1990). “Water content-density criteria for compacted soil liners.” J. Geotech. Eng., 116(12), 1811–1830.
DeGaetano, A. T., Wilkins, D. S., and McKay, M.(1997). “Extreme-value statistics for frost penetration depths in northeastern United States.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 123(9), 828–835.
Hodsen, R. (1994). “Frost depth determination.” Monticello Remedial Action Project Final Design, Calculation E0179500, Rust Geotech, U.S. Department of Energy Grand Junction Office, Grand Junction, Colo.
Kennedy, I., and Sharratt, B.(1998). “Model comparisons to simulate frost depth.” J. Soil Sci., 163(8), 636–645.
Kersten, M. S. (1949). “Final report, laboratory research for determination of the thermal properties of soils.” ACFEL Tech. Rep. No. 23, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, New England Division.
Kim, W-H., and Daniel, D. E.(1992). “Effects of freezing on hydraulic conductivity of compacted clay.” J. Geotech. Eng., 118(7), 1083–1097.
Koerner, R. M., and Daniel, D. E. (1997). Final covers for solid waste landfills and abandoned dumps, ASCE, New York.
Mitchell, J. K. (1993). Fundamentals of soil behavior, 2nd Ed., Wiley, New York.
Mitchell, J. K., Hooper, D. R., and Campanella, R. G.(1965). “Permeability of compacted clay.” J. Soil Mech. Found Div. Am. Soc. Civ. Eng., 91, 41–65.
NAVFAC. (1982). Soil mechanics design manual 7.1, Department of the Navy, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Alexandria, Va.
Othman, M. A., and Benson, C. H.(1993). “Effect of freeze-thaw on the hydraulic conductivity and morophology of compacted clay.” Can. Geotech. J., 30, 236–246.
Schultz, E. (1976). Problems in applied hydrology, Water Resources Publications, Fort Collins, Colo.
Straub, A. L., and Wegmann, F. J.(1965). “Determination of freeze-index values.” Highway Research Board, 68, 17–30.
Yevjevich, V. (1982). Probability and statistics in hydrology, 3rd Ed., Water Resources Publications, Littleton, Colo.
Zimmie, T. F., La Plante, C. M., and Bronson, D. (1992). “The effects of freezing and thawing on the permeability of compacted clay landfill covers and liners.” Proc. of the Mediterranean Conf. on Environmental Geotechnology, M. A. Usmen and Y. B. Acar, eds., Balkema, Rotterdam, The Netherlands, 213–217.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 128 • Issue 9 • September 2002
Pages: 794 - 799
Copyright
Copyright © 2002 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 16, 1999
Accepted: Feb 8, 2002
Published online: Aug 15, 2002
Published in print: Sep 2002
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.