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A study of shear strength properties of municipal solid waste in Chongqing landfill, China

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Abstract

The aim of this study is to analyze the effect of biodegradation on the shear strength of municipal solid waste (MSW), leachate, and biogas production. The direct shear (DS) test shows that the shear strength of waste in the initial stages is mainly depended on its composition and inter-structure. After the waste has been in a landfill for 30 days, the waste’s increased biodegradation exhibited a great influence on the waste’s shear strength. The increase of moisture content in the waste mass might cause a decrease of its shear strength. Tri-axial tests under consolidation-drained (CD) condition show that the shear strength of the cohesion and friction angle for degraded samples increased when the defined axial strain increased from 5 to 20 %. The cohesion varied from 35.90 to 66.42 kPa and the drained friction angle ranged between 29° and 38°. The measurements of shear strength properties are utilized to assess the slope stability of landfills.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support from research grants provided by the Project the Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 106112013CDJZR200008, No. 106112014CDJZR200012) and the Project in the National Science & Technology Pillar Program during the Twelfth Five-year Plan Period (No. 2012BAJ22B06).

Conflict of interest

The authors do not have any potential conflicts of interest to declare.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Civil Engineering, Chongqing University, Area B (B Campus), No.174, Shapingba District, Chongqing, China

    Yan Ru Zhao, Qiang Xie, Gui Lin Wang, Yong Jian Zhang & Yong Xing Zhang

  2. Key Laboratory of New Technology for Construction of Cities in Mountain Areas (Chongqing University), Ministry of Education, Chongqing, 400045, China

    Yan Ru Zhao, Qiang Xie, Gui Lin Wang, Yong Jian Zhang & Yong Xing Zhang

  3. Northwest Research Institute Co. Ltd of C.R.E.C, Xinzhou, China

    Wenjun Su

Authors
  1. Yan Ru Zhao
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  2. Qiang Xie
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  3. Gui Lin Wang
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  4. Yong Jian Zhang
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  5. Yong Xing Zhang
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  6. Wenjun Su
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Qiang Xie.

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Responsible editor: Angeles Blanco

Electronic supplementary material

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Supplementary material Appendix. A

The gradation of MSW is determined and shown in Fig. A.1 (pdf 7.04 kb)

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Zhao, Y.R., Xie, Q., Wang, G.L. et al. A study of shear strength properties of municipal solid waste in Chongqing landfill, China. Environ Sci Pollut Res 21, 12605–12615 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3183-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-014-3183-2

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