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Reliability Assessment of Reddish Brown Tropical Soil as a Liner Material

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Abstract

The use of first order reliability method to assess reddish brown tropical soils as potential materials for liners and covers was studied. A procedure was developed by studying the effects of compactive effort, coefficient of variation and compositional variables like initial saturation, plasticity index and clay content on reliability indices. Three compactive efforts namely British Standard Light (BSL), West African Standard (WAS), British Standard Heavy (BSH) were employed. The F-values of the treatment for the various variables has the highest value for hydraulic conductivity (F = 178), followed by plasticity index (F = 83.7) while the lowest is Clay (F = 12.87). Similarly, with respect to the compactive effort, the F-value for hydraulic conductivity is highest (F = 73,358) followed by plasticity index (F = 4329.6), then clay content (F = 423.12) while the lowest is initial saturation (F = 29.78). BSH should be used in order to attain a minimum hydraulic conductivity (K ≤ 10−7 cm/s) in the field. WAS can also be used with careful control but an equivalent of BSL should never be used. Generally, the F-values for the compactive effort are higher than those of coefficient of variation, showing the superiority of compactive effort over coefficient of variation on the reliability indices. All the calculated F-values are greater than the F-critical or F-tabulated, which inferred that the effect of these variables is statistically significant. Hence, the reliability model used in this research work is suitable for stochastic modeling of reddish brown soils as suitable material for a landfill liner.

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  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, College of Science, Engineering and Technology, Osun State University, P.M.B 4494, Osogbo, Nigeria

    Afeez Adefemi Bello

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Bello, A.A. Reliability Assessment of Reddish Brown Tropical Soil as a Liner Material. Geotech Geol Eng 31, 35–45 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-012-9558-6

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