Abstract
The degradation process of a municipal solid waste (MSW) sample from a landfill in Texas (TX), USA, was monitored in a large-scale laboratory landfill simulator for 1136 days. Simple shear testing was performed on reconstituted fresh and degraded waste specimens and an “undisturbed” degraded specimen. Shear resistance at 10% shear strain was defined as the shear strength in this study. The shear strength of the degraded waste was found to be 17–35% lower than the shear strength of the fresh waste. The effective friction angles of the fresh and degraded waste were 17–21° and 12–17°, respectively. The relatively low friction angles are due to the low compaction effort and density of the specimens. The shear strength of a specimen removed from the simulator in an “undisturbed” manner was found to be nearly identical to the shear strength of a reconstituted degraded specimen.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Bareither CA, Benson CH, Edil TB (2012) Effects of waste composition and decomposition on the shear strength of municipal solid waste. J Geotech Geoenviron 138:1161–1174
Bray JD, Zekkos D, Kavazanjian E Jr, Athanasopoulos GA, Riemer MF (2009) Shear strength of municipal solid waste. J Geotech Geoenviron 135:709–722
DeGroot DJ, Ladd CC, Germaine JT (1992) Direct simple shear testing of cohesive soils. Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Department of Civil Engineering
Fei X (2015) Experimental assessment of coupled physical, biochemical-mechanical-hydraulic processes of municipal solid waste undergoing biodegradation. Doctoral thesis, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Fei X, Zekkos D (2013) Factors influencing long-term settlement of municipal solid waste in laboratory bioreactor landfill simulators. J Hazard Toxic RadioactWaste 17:25–271
Fei X, Zekkos D, Raskin L (2014) An experimental setup for simultaneous physical, geotechnical and biochemical characterization of municipal solid waste undergoing biodegradation in the laboratory. ASTM Geotech Test J 37(1):1–12
Zekkos D, Kavazanjian E, Bray JD, Matasovic N, Riemer MF (2010) Physical characterization of municipal solid waste for geotechnical purposes. J Geotech Geoenviron 136:1231–1241
Acknowledgment
This research was supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) Division of Computer and Communication Foundations under Grant no. 1442773. 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.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2017 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Datta, S., Fei, X., Zekkos, D. (2017). Large-Scale Experimental Assessment of the Effect of Degradation on Shear Strength of Municipal Solid Waste from a Texas Landfill. In: Sivakumar Babu, G., Reddy, K., De, A., Datta, M. (eds) Geoenvironmental Practices and Sustainability. Developments in Geotechnical Engineering. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4077-1_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-4077-1_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-4076-4
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-4077-1
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)