Detecting Landfill Leachate Contamination Using Soil Electrical Properties
Publication: Practice Periodical of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste Management
Volume 7, Issue 1
Abstract
The use of complex permittivity and electrical conductivity to detect soil contamination by landfill leachate is discussed in this paper. The electrical conductivity and complex permittivity of a natural clayey soil are measured before and after permeation with multiple aqueous ionic solutions (synthetic leachate) that simulate the composition of leachate from a domestic solid waste disposal facility, and with aqueous solutions at various concentrations. The dielectric and electrical characteristics of soil, the experimental apparatus and procedure, and the analysis methodology are discussed, followed by the results of complex permittivity measurement before and after permeation using the synthetic leachate and solutions at various concentrations. The results show that the experimental system provides reliable measurement of the soil complex permittivity at 250 MHz and of the soil static electrical conductivity. The relative permittivity of soil is shown to decrease linearly with the overall cationic concentrations in the pore fluid, whereas the relative loss factor and electrical conductivity of soil increases linearly with the overall cationic concentration in the soil pore fluid. The cationic species can be distinguished in terms of the different linear regression trend lines of the electrical conductivity, relative permittivity, and loss factor versus ionic concentrations.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
ASTM-G57a. (1995). “Standard method for field measurement of soil resistivity using the Wenner four-electrode method.” ASTM Designation: G57-95a, 211–215.
Bockris, J., and Reddy, A. K. N. (1998). Modern electrochemistry, 2nd Ed., Plenum Press, New York and London.
Brandeelik, A., and Krafft, G. (1996). Measurement of bound and free water in mixtures. Microwave aquametry, A. Kraszewski, ed., IEEE Press, New York.
Dobson, M. C., Hillikainen, M. T., and Ulaby, F. T.(1985). “Microwave dielectric behaviour of wet soil—part II: Dielectric mixing models.” IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 23(1), 35–46.
Hallikainen, M. T., Ulaby, F. T., and Dobson, M. C.(1985). “Microwave dielectric behaviour of wet soil—part I: Empirical models and experimental observations.” IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 23(1), 25–34.
Hill, N. E. (1969). Dielectric properties and molecular behaviour, Van Nostrand Reinhold, London.
Kaya, A., and Fang, H.(1997). “Identification of contaminated soils by dielectric constant and electrical conductivity.” J. Environ. Eng., 123(2), 169–177.
Lindsay, B., Shang, J. Q., and Rowe, R. K.(2002). “Using complex permittivity and artificial neural networks for contaminant prediction.” J. Environ. Eng., 128(8), 740–747.
Mandel, M., and Odijk, T.(1984). “Dielectric properties of polyelectrolyte solutions.” Annu. Rev. Phys. Chem., 3, 75–108.
Peplinski, N. R., Ulaby, F. T., and Dobson, M. C.(1995). “Dielectric properties of soils in the 0.3–1. GHz range.” IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., 33(3), 803–807.
Raythatha, R., and Sen, P. N.(1986). “Dielectric properties of clay suspensions in MHz to GHz range.” J. Colloid Interface Sci., 109, 301–309.
Rowe, R. K. (1995). “Leachate characterization for MSW landfills.” Proc., 5th Int. Landfill Symp., I, 327–344.
Rowe, R. K., Caers, C. J., and Chan, C.(1993). “Evaluation of a compacted till liner test pad constructed over a granular subliner contingency layer.” Can. Geotech. J., 30(4), 667–689.
Rowe, R. K., Shang, J. Q., and Xie, Y.(2001). “Complex permittivity measurement system for detecting soil contamination.” Can. Geotech. J., 38(3), 498–506.
Rowe, R. K., Shang, J. Q., and Xie, Y. (2002). “Effect of permeating solutions on complex permittivity of compacted clay.” Can. Geotech. J., in press.
Santamarina, J. C., and Fam, M.(1997). “Dielectric permittivity of soils mixed with organic and inorganic fluids (0.02 GHz to 1.30 GHz).” J. Environ. Eng. Geophys., 2(1), 37–52.
Scholte, J. W. (1999). “The complex permittivity of compacted Halton Till.” MESc thesis, Dept. of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Univ. of Western Ontario, London, Ont., Canada.
Scholte, J. W., Shang, J. Q., and Rowe, R. K. (2002). “Improved complex permittivity measurement and data processing techniques for soil-water systems.” Geotech. Test. J., 25(2), 187–198.
Shang, J. Q., Scholte, J. W., and Rowe, R. K.(2000). “Multiple linear regression of complex permittivity of a till at frequency range from 200 MHz to 400 MHz.” Subsurf. Sens. Technol. Applicat., 1(3), 337–356.
Shang, J. Q., Rowe, R. K., Umana, J. A., and Scholte, J. W.(1999). “A complex permittivity measurement system for undisturbed/compacted soils.” J. Geotech. Test., 22(2), 165–174.
Thevanayagam, S.(1995). “Frequency domain analysis of electrical dispersion of soils.” J. Geotech. Eng., 121(8), 618–627.
Wang, J. R., and Schmugge, T. J.(1980). “An empirical model for the complex dielectric permittivity of soils as a function of water content.” IEEE Trans. Geosci. Remote Sens., GE-18, 288–295.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Practice Periodical of Hazardous, Toxic, and Radioactive Waste Management
Volume 7 • Issue 1 • January 2003
Pages: 3 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © 2003 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 20, 2002
Accepted: Sep 12, 2002
Published online: Dec 13, 2002
Published in print: Jan 2003
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.