Landfill Engineering: Waste/Barrier Interaction
By:Neil Dixon, BSc PhD FGS, Professor of Geotechnical Engineering, Loughborough University, United Kingdom
Abstract
Design of landfills must consider stability both within and between elements of the lining system, within the waste and involving the sub-grade. However, the design must also consider the integrity of the lining system. Stresses, and hence deformations, in both mineral and geosynthetic lining materials must be controlled to ensure preferential flow paths for leachate and gas are not formed during the life of the landfill facility. An assessment of integrity requires knowledge of the interaction between components of the lining system and the waste body as it compresses and degrades. Quantification is required of the relative shear displacements within the lining system and the tensile strains in the geosynthetic components. Various researchers have demonstrated through numerical analysis the complex behaviour of interface-waste interaction and the mechanism of stress transfer in a landfill lining system. However, these have traditionally treated the lining system as a single interface using deterministic analyses. This lecture will present field measurements that illustrate aspects of waste/barrier interaction. It will consider the use of numerical modelling techniques to assess integrity of lining components, including consideration of uncertainties in the significant input parameters through the use of probabilistic analysis. The need to instrument lining systems in order to validate numerical analyses will be highlighted.
Biography
Professor Dixon has been an university academic member of staff for over 20 years and he has over 25 years experience in geotechnical engineering research and practice. This includes research on aspects of ground investigation, field monitoring, testing, analysis and design. He has worked on funded projects and published referred papers in the areas of slope failure mechanisms, pore water pressure regimes in slopes, in situ measurement of soil/waste properties, slope stability assessment, instrumentation development, slope process modelling, design guidance and impacts of climate change studies. Professor Dixon has played a leading role in the development of UK practice in waste containment system design through co-authoring the Environment Agency (England and Wales) R&D reports on landfill stability, which were used as the basis for the current stability risk assessment permitting procedure. He has acted as a consultant to the Environment Agency on review of stability risk assessment permit applications and as an expert witness on a landfill design dispute. Professor Dixon is currently an elected Council Member of the International Geosynthetics Society and is Chairman of the International Geosynthetics Society, UK Chapter.
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