Finite-Element Modeling of Landfills to Estimate Heat Generation, Transport, and Accumulation
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 146, Issue 12
Abstract
In North America, temperatures nearing 100°C have been reported in several municipal solid waste landfills. However, the temporal and spatial-dependent processes that result in excessive heat accumulation are not well understood. The objective of this study was to develop a transient finite-element three-dimensional model that incorporates gas-liquid-heat reactive transfer in a landfill with biotic and abiotic reactions and spatially dependent heat transfer processes to better understand heat generation, accumulation, and propagation. The model incorporates gas-liquid-heat reactive transfer with aerobic and anaerobic biological reactions, anaerobic metal corrosion, and ash hydration and carbonation. Increasing boundary temperature, biological reaction rates, and landfill height increase the maximum temperature in the central region of a landfill, whereas the impact of thermal properties of municipal solid waste (MSW) is small. Simulation results predict that placement of ash near the corner of a landfill reduces the size of the elevated temperature region relative to placement in the landfill center. Mixing heat-generating wastes (ash or Al) with MSW decreases maximum temperatures but results in elevated temperatures over a larger fraction of the landfill volume relative to segregated ash disposal.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
This research was supported by a grant from the Environmental Research and Education Foundation.
References
Amestoy, P. R., I. S. Duff, and J. Y. L’excellent. 2000. “Multifrontal parallel distributed symmetric and unsymmetric solvers.” Comput. Method. Appl. Mech. Eng. 184 (2–4): 501–520. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0045-7825(99)00242-X.
Barlaz, M., C. Benson, M. Castaldi, and S. Luettich. 2016. “Diagnosing and understanding elevated temperature landfills (Part 1).” Accessed April 24, 2020. https://www.waste360.com/landfill-operations/diagnosing-and-understanding-elevatedtemperature-landfills-part-1.
Benson, C. 2017. “Characteristics of gas and leachate at an elevated temperature landfill.” In Geotechnical Frontiers 2017, Geotechnical Special Publication. Reston, VA: ASCE. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784480434.034.
Calder, G. V., and T. D. Stark. 2010. “Aluminum reactions and problems in municipal solid waste landfills.” Pract. Period. Hazard. Toxic Radioact. Waste Manage. 14 (4): 258–265. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)HZ.1944-8376.0000045.
Curtiss, C. F., and J. O. Hirschfelder. 1952. “Integration of stiff equations.” Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 38 (3): 235–243. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.38.3.235.
Ewais, A. M. R., R. K. Rowe, R. W. I. Brachman, and D. N. Arnepalli. 2014. “Service life of a high-density polyethylene geomembrane under simulated landfill conditions at 85°C.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. 140 (11): 04014060. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001164.
Gholamifard, S., R. Eymard, and C. Duquennoi. 2008. “Modeling anaerobic bioreactor landfills in methanogenic phase: Long term and short term behaviors.” Water Res. 42 (20): 5061–5071. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.watres.2008.09.040.
Halder, A., A. Dhall, and A. K. Datta. 2011. “Modeling transport in porous media with phase change: Applications to food processing.” J. Heat Trans. 133 (3): 031010. https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4002463.
Hanson, J. L., W. L. Liu, and N. Yesiller. 2008. “Analytical and numerical methodology for modeling temperatures in landfills.” In GeoCongress 2008: Geotechnics of Waste Management and Remediation, 24–31. Reston, VA: ASCE. https://doi.org/10.1061/40970(309)3.
Hanson, J. L., N. Yeşiller, and N. K. Oettle. 2010. “Spatial and temporal temperature distributions in municipal solid waste landfills.” J. Environ. Chem. Eng. 136 (8): 804–814. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)EE.1943-7870.0000202.
Hanson, J. L., N. Yeşiller, M. T. Onnen, W. L. Liu, N. K. Oettle, and J. A. Marinos. 2013. “Development of numerical model for predicting heat generation and temperatures in MSW landfills.” Waste Manage. 33 (10): 1993–2000. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2013.04.003.
Hao, Z., M. Sun, J. J. Ducoste, C. H. Benson, S. Luettich, M. J. Castaldi, and M. A. Barlaz. 2017. “Heat generation and accumulation in municipal solid waste landfills.” Environ. Sci. Technol. 51 (21): 12434–12442. https://doi.org/10.1021/acs.est.7b01844.
Hoor, A., and R. K. Rowe. 2012. “Application of tire chips to reduce the temperature of secondary geomembranes in municipal solid waste landfills.” Waste Manage. 32 (5): 901–911. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2011.12.026.
Jafari, N. H., T. D. Stark, and R. K. Rowe. 2014. “Service life of HDPE geomembranes subjected to elevated temperatures.” J. Hazard. Toxic Radioact. Waste 18 (1): 16–26. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)HZ.2153-5515.0000188.
Jafari, N. H., T. D. Stark, and T. Thalhamer. 2017a. “Progression of elevated temperatures in municipal solid waste landfills.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. 143 (8): 05017004. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0001683.
Jafari, N. H., T. D. Stark, and T. Thalhamer. 2017b. “Spatial and temporal characteristics of elevated temperatures in municipal solid waste landfills.” Waste Manage. 59 (Jan): 286–301. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2016.10.052.
Jain, P., J. Powell, T. G. Townsend, and D. R. Reinhart. 2005. “Air permeability of waste in a municipal solid waste landfill.” J. Environ. Eng. 131 (11): 1565–1573. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9372(2005)131:11(1565).
Klein, R., N. Nestle, R. Niessner, and T. Baumann. 2003. “Numerical modelling of the generation and transport of heat in a bottom ash monofill.” J. Hazard. Mater. 100 (1–3): 147–162. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0304-3894(03)00101-8.
Luettich, S., M. Barlaz, C. Benson, and M. Castaldi. 2015. Elevated temperature landfills—What do we currently know?/What still needs to be defined? Raleigh, NC: Environmental Research and Education Foundation.
Luettich, S. M., and N. Yafrate. 2016. “Measuring temperatures in an elevated temperature landfill.” In Geo-Chicago 2016, 162–176. Reston, VA: ASCE. https://doi.org/10.1061/9780784480144.017.
Martin, J. W., T. D. Stark, T. Thalhamer, G. T. Gerbasi-Graf, and R. E. Gortner. 2012. “Detection of aluminum waste reactions and waste fires.” J. Hazard. Toxic Radioact. Waste 17 (3): 164–174. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)HZ.2153-5515.0000171.
Rowe, R. K. 2020. “Geosynthetic clay liners: Perceptions and misconceptions.” Geotext. Geomembr. 48 (2): 137–156. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geotexmem.2019.11.012.
Rowe, R. K., and M. Z. Islam. 2009. “Impact of landfill liner time—Temperature history on the service life of HDPE geomembranes.” Waste Manage. 29 (10): 2689–2699. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2009.05.010.
Rowe, R. K., S. Rimal, and H. Sangam. 2009. “Ageing of HDPE geomembrane exposed to air, water and leachate at different temperatures.” Geotext. Geomembr. 27 (2): 137–151. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geotexmem.2008.09.007.
Rowe, R. K., and H. P. Sangam. 2002. “Durability of HDPE geomembranes.” Geotext. Geomembr. 20 (2): 77–95. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0266-1144(02)00005-5.
Saad, Y., and M. H. Schultz. 1986. “GMRES: A generalized minimal residual algorithm for solving nonsymmetric linear systems.” SIAM J. Sci. Comput. 7 (3): 856–869. https://doi.org/10.1137/0907058.
Southen, J. M., and R. K. Rowe. 2004. “Investigation of the behavior of geosynthetic clay liners subjected to thermal gradients in basal liner applications.” In Proc., 2nd Symp. on Advances in Geosynthetic Clay Liner Technology, 121–133. West Conshohocken, PA: ASTM.
Stark, T. D., J. W. Martin, G. T. Gerbasi, T. Thalhamer, and R. E. Gortner. 2011. “Aluminum waste reaction indicators in a municipal solid waste landfill.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng. 138 (3): 252–261. https://doi.org/10.1061/(ASCE)GT.1943-5606.0000581.
USEPA. 2005. Landfill gas emissions model (LandGEM) version 3.02 user’s guide. Washington, DC: USEPA.
USEPA. 2015. Municipal solid waste generation, recycling, and disposal in the United States: Facts and Figs. for 2013. Washington, DC: USEPA.
Yeşiller, N., J. L. Hanson, and E. H. Yee. 2015. “Waste heat generation: A comprehensive review.” Waste Manage. 42 (Aug): 166–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2015.04.004.
Yoshida, H., N. Tanaka, and H. Hozumi. 1997. “Theoretical study on heat transport phenomena in a sanitary landfill.” In Vol. 1 of Proc., 6th Int. Landfill Symp., 110–119. Padova, Italy: CISA.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 7, 2020
Accepted: Jul 14, 2020
Published online: Sep 28, 2020
Published in print: Dec 1, 2020
Discussion open until: Feb 28, 2021
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.