Stability Analysis When Using an Engineered Berm to Increase Landfill Space

The scope of this paper is to develop a new three-part wedge method to analyze translational failure when using an engineered berm to increase landfill space. The possible failure face may pass over the back slope of the berm or pass under the bottom of the berm. This depends on the geometric dimensions of the berm which in turn influences the amount of airspace gained. Each possible failure condition must be checked to make sure both the waste mass and berm remain stable. If the waste boundary is kept to be unchanged, ${\mathrm{FS}}_{\text{over}}$ will increase and ${\mathrm{FS}}_{\text{under}}$ will decrease with increase of the back slope of the berm. The critical failure condition may be changed from passing over to passing under the berm by changing the back slope of the berm. If the location of the front toe of the berm is fixed, both ${\mathrm{FS}}_{\text{over}}$ and ${\mathrm{FS}}_{\text{under}}$ increase with increased height of the berm, however, the critical failure condition will change from passing under the berm to passing over the berm.