Title: Evaluating municipal solid wastes shear strength parameters to assess landfill slope stability

Authors: Nader Hataf; Seyedali Mousavinezhad

Addresses: Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran ' Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, School of Engineering, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

Abstract: Due to the economic growth, the rapid process of industrialisation, and urban population increase, municipal solid wastes (MSWs) management problems are of great concern to the governments, especially in developing countries. Besides the environmental issues, several landfill failures have been reported in recent decades caused irreversible damages for human health and imposed financial burdens on the governments. To avoid such geotechnical failures, having a thorough understanding of the mechanical characteristics of MSW is crucial. To this end, we conduct standard compaction tests, direct shear tests, and consolidated undrained (CU) triaxial shear tests to obtain the mechanical properties of Shiraz MSW. Besides, using Slide 2D, we perform a back analysis to examine the geotechnical extents of the Shiraz landfill failure that occurred in 2013 during a firefighting operation. It was shown that the back analysis results have a better correlation with the data gathered from direct shear tests. Model results show that MSW water content increase due to the firefighting operation led to MSW shear strength decrease and slope failure. Considering the complex components of MSW, it is necessary to increase case study research on understanding MSW mechanical properties to design landfills more precisely and prevent such potential disasters in the future.

Keywords: municipal solid wastes; MSWs; shear strength; slope stability; back analysis; Slide 2D.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEWM.2023.130717

International Journal of Environment and Waste Management, 2023 Vol.31 No.3, pp.273 - 290

Received: 17 Mar 2019
Accepted: 12 Jul 2020
Published online: 04 May 2023 *

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