Performance of Residual Soil as Cover System for a Sanitary Landfill in Singapore
Publication: Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 31, Issue 1
Abstract
A large amount of construction waste creates problems related to cost and space for disposal, especially for countries with limited land like Singapore. Therefore, it is important to choose a suitable landfill management system (e.g., cover system) for optimization of landfill area in Singapore. In this paper, the performance of a cover system for minimizing rainwater infiltration into a sanitary landfill in Singapore is presented. The cover system was designed using principles of unsaturated soil mechanics. In this study, a residual soil from Old Alluvium with a low coefficient of unsaturated permeability was used in the cover system. Comprehensive geotechnical instrumentation was installed in the landfill area to monitor the pore-water pressure changes within the cover system and landfill during and after rainfall. Laboratory tests were conducted to characterize the index and engineering properties of the residual soil for the cover system under saturated and unsaturated conditions. The finite-element seepage analyses were carried out to study the effect of climate change on the soil cover system. The results from the seepage analyses showed good agreement with those obtained from the field measurements. The results also showed that the residual soil from Old Alluvium can be used as a landfill cover system to prevent rainwater infiltration into the waste material.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The work was supported by a research grant from the competitive research project (CRP) on “Developing Low-Cost Landfill Capping Technologies,” National Research Funding (NRF), Singapore. The contributions from Professor J. Y. Wang in this study are greatly appreciated.
References
Albright, W. H., Benson, C. H., and Gee, G. W. (2004). “Field water balance of landfill covers.” J. Environ. Qual., 33(6), 2317–2332.
ASTM. (2008). “Standard test methods for the soil-water characteristic curve for desorption using hanging column, pressure extractor, chilled mirror hygrometer or centrifuge.” ASTM D6838-02, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2009). “Standard test methods for particle-size distribution (gradation) of soils using sieve analysis.” ASTM D6913-04, West Conshohocken, PA.
ASTM. (2010). “Standard practice for classification of soils for engineering purposes (Unified Soil Classification System).” ASTM D2487-10, West Conshohocken, PA.
Benson, C. H., Sawangsuriya, A., Trzebiatowski, B., and Albright, W. H. (2007). “Post-construction changes in the hydraulic properties of water balance cover soils.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 349–359.
Childs, E. C., and Collis-George, N. (1950). “The permeability of porous materials.” Proc. R. Soc. London, 201(1066), 392–405.
Daniel, D. E., and Koerner, R. M. (1993). “Quality assurance and quality control for waste containment facilities.”, U.S. EPA, Cincinnati.
Fredlund, D. G., and Rahardjo, H. (1993). Soil mechanics for unsaturated soils, Wiley, New York.
Head, K. H. (1986). Manual of soil laboratory testing, Pentech Press, London.
Krisdani, H., Rahardjo, H., and Leong, E. C. (2005). “Behaviour of capillary barrier system constructed using residual soil.” Geo-Frontiers 2005: Waste Containment and Remediation, ASCE, Reston, VA.
Leong, E. C., Rahardjo, H., and Tang, S. K. (2002). “Characterisation and engineering properties of Singapore residual soils.” Proc., Int. Workshop on Characterisation and Engineering Properties of Natural Soils, Singapore, 1279–1304.
Montgomery, J. H., and Parsons, L. J. (1989). “The Omega Hills final cover test plot study: Three-year data summary.” Annual Meeting of the National Solid Waste Management Association, Washington, DC.
O’Kane, M. A., Ayres, B., Christensen, D., and Meiers, G. (2002). “CANMET-CETEM manual on cover system design for reactive mine waste.”, Natural Resources Canada (CANMET)-Centro de Tecnologica Mineral (CETEM).
Pitts, J. (1985) “An investigation of slope stability on the NTU Campus, Singapore.”, Nanyang Technological Institute, Singapore.
PWD (Public Works Department). (1976). “Geology of the Republic of Singapore.” Singapore.
Rahardjo, H., Santoso, V. A., Leong, E. C., Ng, Y. S., and Tam, C. P. H. (2012). “Use of recycled concrete aggregates in a capillary barrier for slope stability.” Proc., 11th Int. and 2nd North American Symp. on Landslides—ISL NASL 2012, Banff, Canada.
Rahardjo, H., Santoso, V. A., Leong, E. C., Ng, Y. S., Tam, C. P. H., and Satyanaga, A. (2013a). “Use of recycled crushed concrete and secudrain in capillary barrier for slope stabilization.” Can. Geotech. J., 50(6), 662–673.
Rahardjo, H., Satyanaga, A., and Leong, E. C. (2013b). “Effects of flux boundary conditions on pore-water pressure distribution in slope.” J. Eng. Geol., 165, 133–142.
Rahardjo, H., Satyanaga, A., Leong, E. C., and Wang, J.-Y. (2014). “Comprehensive instrumentation for real time monitoring of flux boundary conditions in slope.” Proc. Earth Planet. Sci., 9, 23–43.
Rahardjo, H., Tami, D., and Leong, E. C. (2006). “Effectiveness of sloping capillary barriers under high precipitation rates.” Proc., 2nd Int. Conf. on Problematic Soils, CI-Premier Pte Limited, Singapore, 39–54.
Rock, S., Myers, B., and Fiedler, L. (2012). “Evapotranspiration (ET) covers.” Int. J. Phytorem., 14(Supp1), 1–25.
Rowe, R. K., Quigley, R. M., and Booker, J. R. (1995). Clayey barrier systems for waste disposal facilities, E&FN Spon, London.
Satyanaga, A., Rahardjo, H., Leong, E. C., Wang, J.-Y. (2013). “Water characteristic curve of soil with bimodal grain-size distribution.” Comput. Geotech., 48, 51–61.
Sharma, H. D., and Reddy, K. R. (2004). Geoenvironmental engineering: Site remediation, waste containment and emerging waste management technologies, Wiley, New York.
SoilVision version 2.4.09 [Computer software]. SoilVision Systems Ltd., Saskatoon, SK, Canada.
Suter, G. W., Luxmoore, R. J., and Smith, E. D. (1993). “Compacted soil barriers at abandoned landfill sites are likely to fall in the long term.” J. Environ. Qual., 22(2), 217–226.
Tami, D., Rahardjo, H., Leong, E. C., and Fredlund, D. G. (2004). “Design and laboratory verification of a physical model of sloping capillary barrier.” Can. Geotech. J., 41(5), 814–830.
U.S. EPA. (1991). “Design and construction of RCRA/CERCLA final covers.”, Cincinnati.
Wilson, G. W., Fredlund, D. G., and Barbour, S. L. (1997). “The effect of soil suction on evaporative fluxes from soil surfaces.” Can. Geotech. J., 34(1), 145–155.
Zornberg, J. G., LaFountain, L., and Caldwell, J. A. (2003). “Analysis and design of evapotranspirative cover for hazardous waste landfill.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 427–438.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Performance of Constructed Facilities
Volume 31 • Issue 1 • February 2017
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 26, 2015
Accepted: Apr 8, 2016
Published online: Jun 22, 2016
Discussion open until: Nov 22, 2016
Published in print: Feb 1, 2017
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.