Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Geotechnical Evaluation of Consolidation and Conductivity of Synthetic Municipal Solid Waste

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Geotechnical and Geological Engineering Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Municipal solid wastes are contained in landfills that occupy large areas over several decades and have a significant environmental footprint. The deformation and flow through properties of these materials are important for infrastructure construction on and leachate migration in municipal landfills. However, these properties are not regularly determined because of material heterogeneity, variable constituents, lengthy testing, and pungent odor. The main contribution of this research is the application of consolidation theory to understand the geotechnical behavior of synthetic municipal solid wastes. For this purpose, a synthetic material was prepared in a large cell and incrementally loaded with hydraulic conductivity measured after each load. Test results indicated that void ratio decreased from 0.90 to 0.78 during consolidation as the applied stress increased from 70 to 1225 kPa. The compression index of 0.20 (similar to degraded municipal solid wastes) bounced back with a swell index of 0.022; both indices fell within the range for silt and clay. Likewise, the measured hydraulic conductivity decreased by two orders of magnitude from 10–6 to 10–8 m/s and closely matched those of fine-grained soils. It is concluded that compression of municipal solid wastes follows the consolidation theory and this property is affected by initial void ratio (arising from composition, saturation, and sample disturbance) and particle rearrangement (due to pore water expulsion of during loading). In contrast, the measured conductivity is marginally affected by compression and is quite different from that estimated using the consolidation theory primarily due to alterations in the pore network.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4
Fig. 5
Fig. 6
Fig. 7
Fig. 8

Similar content being viewed by others

Data Availability

The data presented in this study are available in the figures and tables.

References

  • Akbarimehr D, Eslami A, Imam R (2021) Correlations between compression index and index properties of undisturbed and disturbed Tehran clay. Geotech Geol Eng 39:5387–5393. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-021-01821-z

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Asadi M, Shariatmadari N, Karimpour-Fard M, Noorzad A (2017) Validation of hyperbolic model by the results of triaxial and direct shear tests of municipal solid waste. Geotech Geol Eng 35:2003–2015. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-017-0223-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ASTM D2435/D2435M-11 (2020) Standard test methods for one-dimensional consolidation properties of soils using incremental loading. Annual Book of ASTM Standards, West Conshohocken

  • Azam S, Gutiw P, Raghunandan ME (2013) Meso-scale oedometer test system for volume change determination in problematic soils. In: Laloui L, Ferrari A (eds) Multiphysical testing of soils and shales. Springer, Berlin, pp 267–271

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Bareither CA, Benson CH, Edil TB (2012) Compression behavior of municipal solid waste: immediate compression. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 138:1047–1062

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Bennett R, Hulbert M (1986) Clay Microstructure, 1st edn. D.Reidel Publishing Company, Dodrecht

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Bertrand S (2016) Solid waste compaction in landfills. Resource 18:38–41. https://doi.org/10.10520/EJC188641

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Canadian Geographic (2022) Canada’s dirty secret. https://canadiangeographic.ca/articles/canadas-dirty-secret/. Accessed 9 Jun 2022

  • Carter M, Bentley SP (1991) Correlations of soil properties. Pentech press publishers, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Cetin H (2004) Soil-particle and pore orientations during consolidation of cohesive soils. Eng Geol 73:1–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2003.11.006

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen T, Chynoweth DP (1995) Hydraulic conductivity of compacted municipal solid waste. Bioresour Technol 51:205–212

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Chen Y, Li J, Yang C et al (2017) Centrifuge modeling of municipal solid waste landfill failures induced by rising water levels. Can Geotech J 54:1739–1751

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen YM, Xu WJ, Ling DS et al (2020) A degradation–consolidation model for the stabilization behavior of landfilled municipal solid waste. Comput Geotech 118:103341

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen YM, Zhan TL, Wei HY, Ke H (2009) Aging and compressibility of municipal solid wastes. Waste Manag 29:86–95

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • ConstructionDive (2024) Land(fill) of opportunity: why builders are turning dumps into new developments | Construction Dive. https://www.constructiondive.com/news/landfill-of-opportunity-why-builders-are-turning-dumps-into-new-developm/421988/. Accessed 27 Jan 2024

  • Das BM, Sobhan K (2010) Principles of geotechnical engineering, 7th edn. Cengage Learning, Stamford

    Google Scholar 

  • Ding Y, Jia Y, Zong Z et al (2023) Study on the fine particle migration characteristics of silty clay under cyclic loading. Geotech Geol Eng 41:4549–4558. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-023-02532-3

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Durmusoglu E, Sanchez IM, Corapcioglu MY (2006) Permeability and compression characteristics of municipal solid waste samples. Environ Geol 50:773–786

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Environmental Science and Engineering Magazine (2024) Closed landfills are being renewed as solar farms across North America—Environmental Science & Engineering Magazine. https://esemag.com/news/closed-landfills-renewed-solar-farms-north-america/. Accessed 26 Jan 2024

  • Fatahi B, Khabbaz H (2015) Influence of chemical stabilisation on permeability of municipal solid wastes. Geotech Geol Eng 33:455–466. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-014-9831-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fraser Institute (2021) Generation and Management of Municipal Solid Waste: How’s Canada Doing? In: Fraser Institute. https://bit.ly/36nZODr. Accessed 9 Jun 2022

  • Fredlund DG, Rahardjo H, Fredlund MD (2012) Unsaturated soil mechanics in engineering practice. John Wiley & Sons Inc, Hoboken

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Fu Z, Wang G, Song W et al (2021) Deformation behavior of saturated soft clay under cyclic loading with principal stress rotation. Appl Sci 11:8987

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Gabr MA, Valero SN (1995) Geotechnical properties of municipal solid waste. Geotech Test J 18:241–251

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gamie R, De Smedt F (2018) Experimental and statistical study of saturated hydraulic conductivity and relations with other soil properties of a desert soil. Eur J Soil Sci 69:256–264

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Garcia-Bengochea I, Altschaeffl AG, Lovell CW (1979) Pore distribution and permeability of silty clays. J Geotech Eng Div 105:839–856

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • García-Gutiérrez C, Pachepsky Y, Martín MÁ (2018) Saturated hydraulic conductivity and textural heterogeneity of soils. Hydrol Earth Syst Sci 22:3923–3932

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ghosh A, Ng KTW (2021) Temporal and spatial distributions of waste facilities and solid waste management strategies in rural and urban Saskatchewan, Canada. Sustainability 13:6887. https://doi.org/10.3390/su13126887

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Green Line LRT (2022) Home | Green Line LRT. https://www.calgary.ca/green-line.html?redirect=/greenline. Accessed 29 Jun 2022

  • Hadinata F, Damanhuri E, Rahardyan B, Widyarsana IMW (2018) Identification of initial settlement of municipal solid waste layers in Indonesian landfill. Waste Manag Res 36:737–743

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Hillel D (1998) Environmental soil physics: fundamentals, applications, and environmental considerations. Academic Press, San Diego

    Google Scholar 

  • Holtz RD, Kovacs WD, Sheahan TC (2011) An introduction to geotechnical engineering, 2nd edn. Prentice-Hall Inc, Englewood Cliffs

    Google Scholar 

  • Hossain MS, Gabr MA, Barlaz MA (2003) Relationship of compressibility parameters to municipal solid waste decomposition. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 129:1151–1158

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Huang S (1994) Evaluation and laboratory measurement of the coefficient of permeability in deformable, unsaturated soils. PhD Thesis, University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, Saskatchewan

  • Ito M (2009) Effect of seasonal climate on volume change behaviour of Regina clay. Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan

  • Ito M, Azam S (2017) Dewatering behaviour of a uranium ore slurry containing clays. Geotech Geol Eng 35:2549–2569. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-017-0260-6

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ito M, Azam S (2018) Determination of water flow through clayey slurries using computed micro-tomography. Q J Eng Geol Hydrogeol 51:49–62. https://doi.org/10.1144/qjegh2016-089

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Ito M, Azam S, Clifton W (2022) Suction-based model for predicting cyclic and transient volume changes in expansive clays using a material property function. Eng Geol 296:106491. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2021.106491

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Jain P, Powell J, Townsend TG, Reinhart DR (2006) Estimating the hydraulic conductivity of landfilled municipal solid waste using the borehole permeameter test. J Environ Eng 132:645–652

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Jang Y-S, Kim Y-W, Lee S-I (2002) Hydraulic properties and leachate level analysis of Kimpo metropolitan landfill, Korea. Waste Manag 22:261–267

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Kassim KA, Uuey CS (2000) Consolidation characteristics of lime stabilised soil. Malays J Civ Eng 12:31–42

    Google Scholar 

  • Kaufman RI, Sherman WC Jr (1964) Engineering measurements for Port Allen Lock. J Soil Mech Found Div 90:221–247

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ke H, Liu Y, Hu J et al (2022) Experimental study on anisotropy of hydraulic conductivity for municipal solid waste. Waste Manag 137:39–49. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2021.10.030

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Landva AO, Valsangkar AJ, Pelkey SG (2000) Lateral earth pressure at rest and compressibility of municipal solid waste. Can Geotech J 37:1157–1165

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Leroueil S, Hight D (2013) Compacted soils: from physics to hydraulic and mechanical behaviour. Advances in unsaturated soils—Proceedings of the 1st Pan-American conference on unsaturated soils, PanAmUNSAT, pp 41–59. https://doi.org/10.1201/b14393-6

  • Liu J, Afroz M, Ahmad A (2021) Experimental investigation of the impact of salinity on Champlain Sea clay. Mar Georesour Geotechnol 39:494–504

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • McDougall J (2007) A hydro-bio-mechanical model for settlement and other behaviour in landfilled waste. Comput Geotech 34:229–246

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mitchell JK, Soga K (2005) Fundamentals of soil behavior, 3rd edn. John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Ojuri O (2012) Permeability and compressibility characteristics of municipal solid waste samples using a fabricated intermediate scale oedometer. EJGE 17:2713–2720

    Google Scholar 

  • Olivier F, Gourc J-P (2007) Hydro-mechanical behavior of municipal solid waste subject to leachate recirculation in a large-scale compression reactor cell. Waste Manag 27:44–58

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Oweis IS, Smith DA, Brian Ellwood R, Greene DS (1990) Hydraulic characteristics of municipal refuse. J Geotech Eng 116:539–553

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pan C, Ng KTW, Fallah B, Richter A (2019) Evaluation of the bias and precision of regression techniques and machine learning approaches in total dissolved solids modeling of an urban aquifer. Environ Sci Pollut Res 26:1821–1833. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-018-3751-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paranthaman R, Azam S (2022) Effect of compaction on desiccation and consolidation behavior of clay tills. Innov Infrastruct Solut 7:31. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41062-021-00644-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Paranthaman R, Azam S (2021) Effect of composition on engineering behavior of clay tills. Geosciences 11:427. https://doi.org/10.3390/geosciences11100427

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Penmethsa KK (2007) Permeability of municipal solid waste in bioreactor landfill with degradation. Master Thesis, University of Texas, Arlington, Texas

  • Pi X, Fei X, Wang Y et al (2023) Global void ratio of municipal solid waste for compression indices estimation. Waste Manag 160:69–79. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wasman.2023.02.003

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Powrie W, Richards DJ, Beaven RP (1998) Compression of waste and implications for practice. In: Geotechnical engineering of landfills: Proceedings of the symposium held at The Nottingham Trent University Department of Civil and Structural Engineering on 24 September 1998. Thomas Telford Publishing, pp 1–18

  • Pulat HF, Yukselen-Aksoy Y (2022) Compressibility and shear strength behaviour of fresh and aged municipal solid wastes. Environ Geotech 9:55–63. https://doi.org/10.1680/jenge.18.00019

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Reddy K, Hettiarachchi H, Gangathulasi J et al (2009a) Geotechnical properties of synthetic municipal solid waste. Int J Geotech Eng 3:429–438. https://doi.org/10.3328/IJGE.2009.03.03.429-438

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Reddy K, Hettiarachchi H, Parakalla N et al (2009b) Hydraulic conductivity of MSW in landfills. J Environ Eng 135:677–683

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Reddy KR, Gangathulasi J, Parakalla NS et al (2009c) Compressibility and shear strength of municipal solid waste under short-term leachate recirculation operations. Waste Manag Res 27:578–587

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Romero E, Della Vecchia G, Jommi C (2011) An insight into the water retention properties of compacted clayey soils. Géotechnique 61:313–328

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Siddiqui AA, Powrie W, Richards DJ (2013) Settlement characteristics of mechanically biologically treated wastes. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 139:1676–1689

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Souza MA, Oliveira MB, Araújo AD, de Castro JA (2014) Analyze of the density and viscosity of landfill leachate in different temperatures. Am J Environ Eng 4:71–74

    Google Scholar 

  • Statista (2021) Largest waste producing countries per capita. In: Statista. https://www.statista.com/statistics/1168066/largest-waste-producing-countries-worldwide-per-capita/. Accessed 29 Jun 2022

  • Takahashi M, Kanayama M (2023) Consolidation deformation characteristics of Hachirogata clay with salt leaching. Environ Earth Sci 82:338

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Terzaghi K, Peck RB, Mesri G (1996) Soil mechanics in engineering practice. John Wiley & Sons Inc., New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Vecchia GD, Romero E (2013) A fully coupled elastic–plastic hydromechanical model for compacted soils accounting for clay activity. Int J Numer Anal Methods Geomech 37:503–535

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Veiskarami M, Roshanali L, Habibagahi G (2022) Effect of particles shape on the hydraulic conductivity of Stokesian flow in granular materials. Geotech Geol Eng 40:4645–4656. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-022-02175-w

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Walsh P, O’Leary P (2002) Preparing landfill designs & specifications. Waste Age 33:48–53

    Google Scholar 

  • Wu L, Zhan L, Lan J et al (2021) Leachate migration investigation at an unlined landfill located in granite region using borehole groundwater TDS profiles. Eng Geol 292:106259. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.enggeo.2021.106259

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu XB, Powrie W, Zhang WJ et al (2020) Experimental study of the intrinsic permeability of municipal solid waste. Waste Manag 102:304–311

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Xu XB, Zhan TLT, Chen YM, Beaven RP (2014) Intrinsic and relative permeabilities of shredded municipal solid wastes from the Qizishan landfill, China. Can Geotech J 51:1243–1252

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  • Zekkos D, Fei X, Grizi A, Athanasopoulos G (2016) Response of municipal solid waste to mechanical compression. J Geotech Geoenviron Eng 143:1–11

    Google Scholar 

  • Zeng G, Ma J, Hu D, Wang J (2019) Experimental study on compression and intrinsic permeability characteristics of municipal solid waste. Adv Civ Eng 2019:1–8

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the University of Regina for providing laboratory space and computational facilities. Thanks to Mr. Peter Gutiw for his help in the design, fabrication, and calibration of the equipment as well as sample removal after testing.

Funding

This research work was funded by Natural Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada. Likewise, the develop of the large scale oedometer test setup was funded by the Canada Foundation for Innovation.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. NewFields Canada Mining and Environment ULC, 200-446 2nd Avenue N., Saskatoon, SK, S7K 2C3, Canada

    Rajeevkaran Paranthaman

  2. Environmental Systems Engineering, Faculty of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Regina, 3737 Wascana Parkway, Regina, SK, S4S 0A2, Canada

    Shahid Azam

  3. Clifton Engineering Group Inc., 340 Maxwell Crescent, Regina, SK, S4N 5Y5, Canada

    Rashed H. Chowdhury

Authors
  1. Rajeevkaran Paranthaman
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shahid Azam
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  3. Rashed H. Chowdhury
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Contributions

Laboratory testing, RC; Formal analysis, RC and RP; Writing—original draft, RP; Conceptual guidance, SA; Writing—review and editing, SA. All the authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shahid Azam.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of interest

The authors declare there is no conflict of interest.

Additional information

Publisher's Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Paranthaman, R., Azam, S. & Chowdhury, R.H. Geotechnical Evaluation of Consolidation and Conductivity of Synthetic Municipal Solid Waste. Geotech Geol Eng (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-024-02787-4

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10706-024-02787-4

Keywords

Search

Navigation