Municipal Solid Waste Landfill Settlement: Postclosure Perspectives
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 133, Issue 6
Abstract
This paper presents settlement mechanisms and the methods for estimating settlements of municipal solid waste landfills, including bioreactor landfills. Based on results of field monitoring and data in published literature, coefficients of secondary compression for solid waste due to self-weight and external load are estimated. Special considerations are given to bioreactor landfills. Uses of these coefficients for long-term settlement estimation and their application to postclosure maintenance and development plans are discussed. Four case histories illustrating the use of these coefficients are presented. Methods of landfill treatment to reduce settlements are also presented.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The writers thank the anonymous reviewers and the editorial board members for their constructive criticisms and review comments, which have helped to enhance the quality of the paper.
References
Anderson, E. O., Balanko, L. A., Lem, J. M., and Davis, D. H. (2004). “Field monitoring of the compressibility of municipal solid waste and soft alluvium.” Proc., 5th Int. Conf. on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering, New York.
Babu, G. L. S., and Fox, P. J. (1997). “Discussion of ‘Municipal landfill biodegradation and settlement’ by Dean K. Wall and Chris Zeiss.” J. Environ. Eng., 123(5), 521.
Bjarngard, A. B., and Edgers, L. (1990). “Settlement of municipal solid waste landfills.” Proc., 13th Annual Madison Waste Conf., Univ. of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis., 192–205.
Bouazza, A., and Kavazanjian, E., Jr. (2001). “Construction on former landfills.” Proc., 2nd ANZ Conf. on Environmental Geotechnics, Newcastle, Australia, 467–482
Bouazza, A., Van Impe, W. F., and Haegeman, W. (1996). “Quality control of dynamic compaction in landfills.” 2nd Int. Congress on Environmental Geotechnics, Osaka, Japan.
Coduto, D. P., and Huitric, R. (1990). “Monitoring landfill movements using precise instruments.” Geotechnics of waste fills—Theory and practice, ASTM STP 1070, A. O. Landva and G. D. Knowles, eds., ASTM, Philadelphia, 358–370.
Dodt, M. E., Sweatman, M. B., and Bergstrom, W. R. (1987). “Field measurements of landfill surface settlements.” Geotechnical practice for waste disposal ’87, R. D. Woods, ed., ASCE, Ann Arbor, Mich.
Dunn, R. J. (1995). “Design and construction of foundations compatible with solid wastes.” Landfill closures . . . environmental protection and land recovery, ASCE Specialty Conf., R. J. Dunn and U. P. Singh, eds., ASCE, Reston, Va., 139–159.
Earth Tech Consultants. (2001). “Settlement and density enhancement for leachate recirculation landfills.” Proc., Waste Tech, San Diego.
Edil, T. B., Ranguette, V. J., and Wuellner, W. W. (1990). “Settlement of municipal refuse.” Geotechnics of waste fills: Theory and practice, STP1070, A. Landva and G. D. Knowles, eds., ASTM, Philadelphia, 225–239.
El-Fadel, M., and Al-Rashed, H. (1998). “Settlement in municipal solid waste landfills I. Field scale experiments.” J. Solid Waste Technol. Manage., 25(2), 89–98.
Gibson, R. E., and Lo, K. Y. (1961). “A theory of soils exhibiting secondary compression.” Acta Polytech. Scand., C(10), 1–15.
Gifford, G. P., Landva, A. O., and Hoffman, V. C. (1990). “Geotechnical considerations when planning construction on a landfill.” Geotechnics of waste fills—Theory and practice, ASTM STP 1070, A. O. Landva and G. D. Knowles, eds., ASTM, Philadelphia, 41–56.
Hossain, M. S., Gabr, M. A., and Barlaz, M. A. (2003). “Relationship of compressibility parameters to municipal solid waste decomposition.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 129(12), 1151–1158.
Keech, M. A. (1995). “Design of civil infrastructure over landfills.” Landfill closures . . . environmental protection and land recovery, ASCE Specialty Conf., R. J. Dunn and U. P. Singh, eds., ASCE, Reston, Va., 160–183.
LaGatta, M. D., Boardman, B. T., Cooley, B. H. and Daniel, D. E. (1997). “Geosynthetic clay liners subjected to differential settlement.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 123(5), 402–410.
Landva, A. O., Valsangkar, A. J., and Pelkey, S. G. (2000). “Lateral earth pressure at rest and compressibility of municipal solid waste.” Can. Geotech. J., 37(6), 1157–1165.
Lewis, P. J., Mansfield, J., Ashraf, S., and Zicko, K. (2004). “Performance of highway embankment constructed over landfill material.” Proc., 5th Int. Conf. on Case Histories in Geotechnical Engineering, New York.
Ling, H. I., Leshchinsky, D., Mohri, Y., and Kawabata, T. (1998). “Estimation of municipal solid waste landfill settlement.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 124(1), 21–28.
Lukas, R. G. (1992). “Dynamic compaction of sanitary landfills.” Geotech. News, 51–54.
Marques, A. C. M., Filz, G. M., and Vilar, O. M. (2003). “Composite compressibility model for municipal solid waste.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 129(4), 372–378.
Mehta, R., et al. (2002). “Refuse decomposition in the presence and absence of leachate recirculation.” J. Environ. Eng., 128(3), 228–236.
Morris, D. V., and Woods, C. E. (1990). “Settlement and engineering considerations in landfill and final cover design.” Geotechnical waste fills: Theory and practice, SPT 1070, A. Landva and G. D. Knowles, eds., ASTM, Philadelphia, 9–21.
NAVFAC, U.S. Department of the Navy. (1983). Soil mechanics design manual 7.3, Naval Facilities Engineering Command, Alexandria, Va.
Oweis, I. S., and Khera, R. (1986). “Criteria for geotechnical construction on sanitary landfills.” Proc., Symp. on Environmental Geotechnology, Vol. 1, Allentown, Pa., 205–223.
Oweis, I. S., and Khera, R. (1990). Geotechnology of waste management, 2nd Ed., PWS, Boston.
Park, H., Lee, S. R., and Do, N. Y. (2002). “Evaluation of decomposition effect on long-term settlement prediction for fresh municipal solid waste landfills.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 128(2), 107–118.
Sharma, H. D. (2000). “Solid waste landfills: Settlements and post-closure perspectives.” Proc., ASCE National Conf. on Environmental and Pipeline Engineering, R. Y. Suranpalli, ed., ASCE, Reston, Va., 447–455.
Sharma, H. D., Fowler, W. L., and Cochrane, D. A. (1999). “Evaluation and remediation of ground cracking associated with refuse settlements.” 7th Int. Waste Management and Landfill Symp., Cagliari, Italy.
Sharma, H. D., and Lewis, S. P. (1994). Waste containment systems, waste stabilization, and landfill, Wiley, New York.
Sharma, H. D., and Reddy, K. R. (2004). Geoenvironmental engineering site remediation, waste containment, and emerging waste management technologies, Wiley, Hoboken, N.J.
Sharma, H. D., Settepani, F. W., and Burns, P. F. (2003). “Design and construction of a foundation system for an industrial building above a closed sanitary landfill.” 9th Int. Waste Management and Landfill Symp., Sardinia, Italy.
Sowers, G. F. (1973). “Settlement of waste disposal fills.” Proc., 8th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Moscow.
Van Impe, W. F., and Bouazza, A. (1996). “Densification of domestic waste fills by dynamic compaction.” Can. Geotech. J., 33, 879–887.
Wall, D. K., and Zeiss, C. (1995). “Municipal landfill biodegradation and settlement.” J. Environ. Eng., 121(3), 214–224.
Welsh, J. P. (1983). “Dynamic deep compaction of sanitary landfill to support superhighway.” Proc., 8th European Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, Helsinki, Finland, 319–321.
Yolo County, Planning and Public Works Department. (2000). “A beneficial investment in trash controlled landfill bioreactor project.” Urban Consortium Energy Task Force.
Yolo County, Planning and Public Works Department. (2003). “Monitoring the performance of anaerobic landfill cells with fluids recirculation.” Final Project Rep., Western Regional Biomass Energy Program.
Zaminskie, E. M., Kabir, M. G., and Haddad, A. (1994). “Settlement evaluation for cap closure performance.” Vertical and Horizontal Deformations of Foundations and Embankments, Proc., Settlement ’94, A. T. Yeung and G. Y. Felio, eds., Vol. 1, 462–475.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 133 • Issue 6 • June 2007
Pages: 619 - 629
Copyright
© 2007 ASCE.
History
Received: May 4, 2004
Accepted: Sep 27, 2006
Published online: Jun 1, 2007
Published in print: Jun 2007
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.