Unit Weight of Municipal Solid Waste
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 10
Abstract
The unit weight of municipal solid waste (MSW) is an important parameter in engineering analyses of landfill performance, but significant uncertainty currently exists regarding its value. A careful review of reliable field data shows that individual landfills have a characteristic MSW unit weight profile. Based on in situ unit weight data and trends observed in large-scale laboratory tests, a hyperbolic relationship was developed to represent this characteristic MSW unit weight profile. Within the context of this characteristic profile, landfill-specific values of MSW unit weight depend primarily on waste composition, operational practices (i.e., compaction, cover soil placement, and liquids management), and confining stress. Guidance is provided for developing landfill-specific MSW unit weight profiles, including procedures for performing large-scale tests for in situ measurement of MSW unit weight at a landfill.
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Acknowledgments
The work described in this paper was funded by the National Science Foundation Division of Civil and Mechanical Systems under Grant Nos. NSFCMS-022064, NSFCMS-0220159, NSFCMS-0219834, and NSFCMS-04137572 as part of a collaborative study by the University of California at Berkeley, Arizona State University, GeoSyntec Consultants, and the University of Texas at Austin. Professor George Athanasopoulos of the University of Patras shared insights and data. The writers would also like to thank S. Chickey, field engineer at GeoSyntec Consultants, for his help in the field investigation, B. Seos, Ph.D. student at Arizona State University, for his help in the classification of MSW, J. J. Lee, Ph.D. student at the University of Texas at Austin, for some of the data presented in this paper, and Mr. Guy Petraborg of Waste Management, Inc. for allowing and assisting the drilling and sampling waste operations at the Tri-Cities Landfill.
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Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 132 • Issue 10 • October 2006
Pages: 1250 - 1261
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Aug 16, 2005
Accepted: May 3, 2006
Published online: Oct 1, 2006
Published in print: Oct 2006
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