Response of Municipal Solid Waste to Mechanical Compression
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 143, Issue 3
Abstract
The compressibility of municipal solid waste (MSW) is of engineering interest as it affects the short-term and long-term performance of landfills, as well as their expansion, closure, and postclosure development. An assessment of the field settlement behavior of MSW can be reliably executed only when the various mechanisms contributing to the settlement are properly taken into account. A comprehensive large-size experimental testing program that involved a total of 143 one-dimensional compression tests from five landfills, in Arizona, California, Michigan, and Texas of the United States as well as Greece was executed to systematically assess the compressibility characteristics of MSW subjected to a compressive load. Emphasis is given to the influence of waste structure, waste composition, unit weight, and confining stress on the compressibility parameters that are used in engineering practice, such as the constrained modulus and compression ratio, as well as long-term compression ratio due to mechanical creep only. The effect of waste composition and unit weight on the compressibility parameters is quantified. It is also found that the type of waste constituent (i.e., paper, plastic, or wood), as well as the waste’s anisotropic structure can have an effect on the compressibility characteristics of soil-waste mixtures. The proposed relationships can be used to estimate compressibility parameters of MSW at any degradation state as long as the waste composition and unit weight are known.
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Acknowledgments
This research was partially supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), Division of Civil and Mechanical Systems under Grant No. CMMI-1041566, Division of Computer and Communication Foundations under Grant No. 1442773, and by fellowships from the Geosynthetic Institute (GI) and the Environmental Research and Education Foundation (EREF). ConeTec Investigations Ltd. and the ConeTec Education Foundation are acknowledged for their support to the Geotechnical Engineering Laboratories at the University of Michigan. Any opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF, GI, or EREF. The authors thank Dr. Andhika Sahadewa for assisting with waste characterization, Andrew Tamer and Shih-cheng Chu for assisting with specimen preparation, and Xeni Founta who assisted in a number of the laboratory tests from Xerolakka landfill.
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Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 143 • Issue 3 • March 2017
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© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 12, 2015
Accepted: Jul 7, 2016
Published online: Sep 1, 2016
Discussion open until: Feb 1, 2017
Published in print: Mar 1, 2017
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