Influence of Spatial Variation of Hydraulic Conductivity of Municipal Solid Waste on Performance of Bioreactor Landfill
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 11
Abstract
The current study analyzes the leachate distribution in the Orchard Hills Landfill, Davis Junction, Illinois, using a two-phase flow model to assess the influence of variability in hydraulic conductivity on the effectiveness of the existing leachate recirculation system and its operations through reliability analysis. Numerical modeling, using finite-difference code, is performed with due consideration to the spatial variation of hydraulic conductivity of the municipal solid waste (MSW). The inhomogeneous and anisotropic waste condition is assumed because it is a more realistic representation of the MSW. For the reliability analysis, the landfill is divided into 10 MSW layers with different mean values of vertical and horizontal hydraulic conductivities (decreasing from top to bottom), and the parametric study is performed by taking the coefficients of variation (COVs) as 50, 100, 150, and 200%. Monte Carlo simulations are performed to obtain statistical information (mean and COV) of output parameters of the (1) wetted area of the MSW, (2) maximum induced pore pressure, and (3) leachate outflow. The results of the reliability analysis are used to determine the influence of hydraulic conductivity on the effectiveness of the leachate recirculation and are discussed in the light of a deterministic approach. The study is useful in understanding the efficiency of the leachate recirculation system.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
References
Baecher, G. B., and Christian, J. T. (2003). Reliability and statistics in geotechnical engineering, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ.
Haydar, M., and Khire, M. (2004). “Numerical evaluation of spatial variation in waste hydraulic conductivity on leachate recirculation in MSW landfills.” Proc., 26th Int. Conf. Solid Waste Tech. Manage., Widener Univ., Chester, PA.
Haydar, M., and Khire, M. (2005a). “Leachate recirculation using horizontal trenches in bioreactor landfills.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 131(7), 837–847.
Haydar, M., and Khire, M. (2005b). “Numerical evaluation of heterogeneity and anisotropy of waste properties on leachate recirculation in bioreactor landfills.” J. Solid Waste Manage. Tech., 30(4), 233–243.
Itasca Consulting Group. (2008). FLAC—Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua, Itasca Consulting Group Manuals, Minneapolis.
Reddy, K. R., et al. (2009a). “Hydraulic conductivity of MSW in landfills.” J. Environ. Eng., 135(8), 677–683.
Reddy, K. R., Grellier, S., Carpenter, P., and Bogner, J. (2009b). Report on geophysical monitoring of leachate recirculation at Orchard Hills Landfill, Environmental Research and Education Foundation, Alexandria, VA.
Stoltz, G., Tinet, A. J., Staub, M. J., Oxarango, L., and Gourc, J. P. (2012). “Moisture retention properties of municipal solid waste in relation to compression.” J. Geotech. Geoenviron. Eng., 138(4), 535–543.
United States Army Corps of Engineers. (1997). “Engineering and design: Introduction to probability and reliability methods for use in geotechnical engineering.” Engineering Circular No. 1110-2-547, Dept. of the Army, Washington, DC.
van Genuchten, M. Th. (1980). “A closed form equation for predicting the hydraulic conductivity of unsaturated soils.” Soil Sci. Am. J., 44(5), 892–898.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 11 • November 2013
Pages: 1968 - 1972
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Apr 6, 2012
Accepted: Mar 20, 2013
Published online: Mar 22, 2013
Published in print: Nov 1, 2013
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.