Abstract
A constitutive model is developed to describe the stress–strain–time behavior for decomposing municipal solid waste (MSW) within a critical state soil mechanics framework. The model is an extension of the Modified Cam-Clay plasticity model. In this model, three sources contribute to the hardening of MSW due to volumetric strain: time-independent plastic volumetric strain, time-dependent volumetric mechanical creep strain, and time-dependent volumetric strain due to the biodegradation (decomposition) of MSW. The MSW model was evaluated through numerical analyses of large-scale one-dimensional compression tests in the laboratory and the field and the reported vertical and horizontal deformations of a MSW landfill. The associated model parameters were obtained by compositional analysis of the waste, from values reported in the literature, and by fitting numerical results to observed behavior. For the laboratory compression test, the best-fit numerical simulation over-predicted the early settlement but converged on the experimental values after 200 days. Initially, the calculated vertical strains in the field-scale test deviated from the measured strains by up to 10% over the 398-day period of the test. However, numerical results after adjusting model parameters to provide the best fit with the measured strains resulted in a maximum deviation of less than 3% over the test duration. The calculated vertical displacements of the MSW landfill were consistent with field measurements. However, the calculated horizontal displacements were significantly lower than the measured values. Sensitivity studies showed that the time-dependent settlement predicted by the model is highly sensitive to the biodegradation rate of MSW. The good agreement between numerical values and observed vertical deformations for the SWEAP section on the MSW landfill suggests that the model has the potential to assess the performance of subsystems in landfills (e.g., the performance of a side slope liner system subject to landfill settlement). However, the discrepancy between predicted and observed horizontal displacements suggests that the numerical model can be improved by incorporating deviatoric creep deformations in the constitutive model.
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Data availability
Data and material used in preparation of this manuscript are available from the authors upon request if not already in the public domain.
Code availability
The finite difference code used in the numerical analyses described herein [27] is a commercial code that can be purchased from the developer. The constitutive model used in these analyses was programmed by the first author (Gao) and is the property of the first author.
Abbreviations
- \(C_{\alpha }^{\prime }\) :
-
Modified coefficient of secondary compression
- dε v :
-
Volumetric strain increment
- \({\text{d}}\varepsilon_{{\text{v}}}^{{\text{e}}}\) :
-
Time-independent elastic (recoverable) volumetric strain increment
- \({\text{d}}\varepsilon_{{\text{v}}}^{{\text{p}}}\) :
-
Time-independent plastic (irrecoverable) volumetric strain increment
- \({\text{d}}\varepsilon_{{\text{v}}}^{{{\text{tp}}}}\) :
-
Time-dependent plastic volumetric strain increment
- \({\text{d}}\varepsilon_{{\text{c}}}^{{\text{t}}}\) :
-
Time-dependent plastic volumetric mechanical creep strain increment
- \({\text{d}}\varepsilon_{{\text{d}}}^{{\text{t}}}\) :
-
Time-dependent plastic volumetric biodegradation strain increment
- \({\text{d}}\varepsilon_{{\text{s}}}^{{\text{e}}}\) :
-
Elastic deviatoric strain increment
- \({\text{d}}\varepsilon_{{\text{s}}}^{{\text{p}}}\) :
-
Plastic deviatoric strain increment
- dp′:
-
Mean effective stress increment
- \({\text{d}}p_{{\text{c}}}^{{\prime }}\) :
-
Effective preconsolidation stress increment
- \({\text{d}}p_{{\text{c}}}^{{{\prime 1}}}\) :
-
Increment in effective preconsolidation stress caused by load
- \({\text{d}}p_{{\text{c}}}^{{{\prime }2}}\) :
-
Increment in effective preconsolidation stress due to mechanical creep
- \({\text{d}}p_{{\text{c}}}^{{{\prime }3}}\) :
-
Increment in effective preconsolidation stress due to biodegradation
- dq :
-
Deviatoric stress increment
- dt :
-
Time increment
- dV T :
-
Change in the overall (total) volume
- dV S :
-
Change of volume of the solid phase
- dV D :
-
Change of volume of the decomposable solid phase
- dV V :
-
Change of volume of the voids
- \({\text{d}}V_{{{\text{V}}\,{\text{load}}}}\) :
-
Change of volume of the voids due to load (stress increase)
- \({\text{d}}V_{{{\text{V}}\,{\text{creep}}}}\) :
-
Change of volume of the voids due to mechanical creep
- \({\text{d}}V_{{{\text{V}}\,{\text{decomp}}}}\) :
-
Change of volume of the voids due to biodegradation
- e :
-
Void ratio or natural number
- e 0 :
-
Initial void ratio
- E dg :
-
Total amount of strain that can occur because of biodegradation
- f :
-
Elliptical yield surface
- G :
-
Shear modulus
- G s :
-
Specific gravity
- h p :
-
Height of specimen after primary compression is complete
- k :
-
Kinetic rate constant for biodegradation
- K :
-
Elastic bulk modulus
- K max :
-
Limiting value for the bulk modulus
- K 0 :
-
Ratio of horizontal to vertical effective stress (level ground)
- mSi :
-
Initial dry mass of the solids
- m D i :
-
Initial dry mass of the decomposable solids
- m I i :
-
Initial dry mass of the inert solids
- m S :
-
Dry mass of the solids
- m D :
-
Dry mass of the decomposable solids
- m I :
-
Dry mass of the inert solids
- M :
-
Slope of the critical state line in the p′–q-plane
- p′:
-
Mean effective normal stress, \(\left( {\sigma_{1}^{{\prime }} + \sigma_{2}^{{\prime }} + \sigma_{3}^{{\prime }} } \right)/3\)
- \(p_{{\text{c}}}^{{\prime }}\) :
-
Effective preconsolidation stress
- q :
-
Deviatoric stress, \(\left( {3\surd 2} \right)\tau_{{{\text{oct}}}}\)
- t :
-
Time
- t 0 :
-
Time at which secondary compression begins
- t v :
-
Volumetric age
- (t v)i :
-
Instant volumetric time, usually set to unity
- T 1 :
-
Creep time
- V T i :
-
Initial total (overall) volume
- V S :
-
Total volume of the solids
- V D :
-
Volume of the decomposable solid phase
- V I :
-
Volume of the inert solid phase
- w :
-
Initial water content
- x :
-
Horizontal direction
- y :
-
Vertical direction
- γ 0 :
-
Initial bulk unit weight
- γ :
-
Bulk unit weight
- γ d :
-
Dry unit weight
- ε :
-
Vertical strain, compression positive
- \(\varepsilon_{{\text{v}}}^{{\text{p}}}\) :
-
Time-independent plastic volumetric strain
- \(\varepsilon_{{\text{c}}}^{{\text{t}}}\) :
-
Time-dependent plastic volumetric mechanical creep strain
- \(\varepsilon_{{\text{d}}}^{{\text{t}}}\) :
-
Time-dependent plastic volumetric biodegradation strain
- η :
-
Slope of the one-dimensional normal compression line in the p′–q-plane
- κ :
-
Slope of the elastic swelling line in the lnp′–v-plane
- λ :
-
Slope of the initial normal consolidation line in the lnp′–v-plane
- Λ:
-
Decomposition-induced void change parameter
- μ :
-
Poisson’s ratio
- v 0 :
-
Initial specific volume, 1 + e0
- v l :
-
Specific volume at the effective reference pressure on the initial normal compression line
- v 1 :
-
Specific volume of point A
- v 2 :
-
Specific volume of point B
- ρ d :
-
Dry density
- ρ D :
-
Dry density of the decomposable solids
- ρ I :
-
Dry density of the inert solids
- \(\sigma_{1}^{{\prime }}\) :
-
Effective major principal stress
- \(\sigma_{2}^{{\prime }}\) :
-
Effective intermediate principal stress
- \(\sigma_{3}^{{\prime }}\) :
-
Effective minor principal stress
- \(\sigma_{{\text{v}}}^{{\prime }}\) :
-
Effective vertical stress
- τ oct :
-
Octahedral shear stress
- φ 1 :
-
Effective friction angle
- ψ :
-
Secondary compression coefficient, ln-scale
- Ω:
-
Decomposition hardening multiplier
- Δhc :
-
Settlement generated by mechanical creep
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The China Scholarship Council (CSC) is gratefully acknowledged for its financial support.
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Both authors contributed to the study conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Wu Gao. The first draft of the manuscript was written by Wu Gao, and both authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. Both authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Appendices
Appendix 1
See Table 8.
Appendix 2: Derivation of Eq. (10b)
As shown in Fig. 1, for a waste element at a state point at B, with volumetric age tv, volumetrically creeps in time period \(\Delta t = \Delta t_{{\text{v}}}\) at a constant effective stress, the waste would shrink by an amount as follows:
Solving for \(\Delta p_{{\text{c}}}^{{\prime }} /p_{{\text{c}}}^{{\prime }}\) obtains:
Taking the limit of \(\Delta p_{{\text{c}}}^{{\prime }} /\Delta t_{{\text{v}}}\) as \(\Delta t_{{\text{v}}} \to 0\) gives:
Therefore, the increment in \(p_{{\text{c}}}^{{\prime }}\) due to mechanical creep, \({\text{d}}p_{{\text{c}}}^{{{\prime }2}}\) is expressed as:
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Gao, W., Kavazanjian, E. A constitutive model for municipal solid waste considering mechanical creep and biodegradation-induced compression. Acta Geotech. 17, 37–63 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-021-01202-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11440-021-01202-z