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Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) model is one of the most accepted tools to simulate

the hydrological attributes of landfills. Although some major deviations from real values has been reported about the

calculated results for leachate generation by HELP model but other researchers and/or engineers in practice have

used it in some places to estimate amount of leachate produced in the landfills. On the Other hand this model is

elaborated and mainly used in developed countries with the waste having low moisture content and also in climatic

conditions with high precipitation. This research investigated the applicability of the model in arid areas, by

construction of two 30m× 50m (effective horizontal length) test cells in Kahrizak landfill (longitude=51°, 20',

latitude= 35° 27' degrees), and monitoring the real leachate generation from each one. A set of field capacity and

saturated water conductivity tests were also performed to determine basic hydrologic properties of municipal waste

landfilled. A comparison was made between values calculated by HELP model and recorded values, shows that a

prediction of leachate on annual basis can be done by HELP model with acceptable accuracy but when the infiltration

of water to waste body increases due to leachate production, the model intents to underestimate water storage capacity

of the landfill, which lead to deviation of calculated values from real ones.

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Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) materials are among the most complicated materials for geotechnical engineering as their composition includes an organic fraction, which suffers loss of mass over time, and a fibrous part, which acts as reinforcement, governing the MSW shear behavior. Because of these characteristics MSW can be described as a viscous material which shows time dependent behavior. Since the decomposition of MSW leads to gas and leachate generation, the changes in the MSW’s mechanical behavior could be linked to gas emission and leachate production from landfills. This paper deals with the characteristics of MSW materials to provide the necessary data for efficient and safe landfill design, construction and operation. The MSW physical characteristics such as composition, water content and organic content at varying ages, field and laboratory measurements of methane generation and leachate production, MSW compressibility behavior and its shear strength are covered. By presenting these data the authors hope to promote a better understanding of the mechanical behavior of MSW and provide useful data for use in landfill management tasks.

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This research shows the results of studies carried out to define and analyze the effect of aging on MSW behavior of Kahrizak Landfill, the biggest landfill in Iran. Studied samples consisted of fresh samples and also aged ones with 5.5, 14 and 21 years of age which were obtained by mechanical excavators in aged burial locations. Analyzing variation in MSW components illustrates that paste fraction of MSW decreases due to aging process while fibers show a rising trend. Also the moisture content and the organic content of MSW reduce below half of the initial values while the degree of decomposition (DOD) increase up to almost 60% after 14 years. These variations over the time are significantly related to the burying methods and environmental condition of burying location. Shear strength behavior of MSW material was analyzed by some CU tests using large scale triaxial apparatus (D=150mm, H=300mm) on remolded MSW specimens. General observations depict that with an increase in strain level, loading rises without any peak point on stress-strain curves. Fresh samples represent the lowest shear strength followed by 21, 14 and 5.5 year-old samples respectively. There is a direct relationship between fiber content and shear strength. Internal friction angle of aged samples decreases in comparison with fresh ones while cohesion has an inverse trend and rises over the time. According to the effect of burying condition on MSW characteristics, it seems that DOD factor is a more appropriate factor than age in order to analyze long-term behavior of MSW.

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Due to the existence of fibrous materials such as plastic fragments, the strength anisotropy of Municipal Solid Waste

(MSW) materials is the main source of differences between their mechanical response in direct shear and triaxial apparatus.

As an extension of earlier research on the mechanical behavior of MSW using a large traixail apparatus, results presented in

Shariatmadari et al. [1] and Karimpour-Fard et al. [2], the current study was programmed and executed. MSW samples were

tested using a computer controlled large shear box apparatus with normal stress levels ranging between 20 to 200 kPa. The

effect of fiber content, fiber orientation, aging and shearing rate on the response of MSW were addressed. The results showed

that shear strength of MSW increases with normal stress, although, in spite of the presence of reinforcement elements in MSW

and unlike the results from triaxial tests, no strain hardening could be observed in their mechanical response. An increase in

the shear strength of MSW was observed with increasing the shearing rate. Increasing the shearing rate from 0.8 to 19

mm/min, enhanced the shear strength of samples from 16 to 27% depending on the shear displacement level. Although, the

same trend was investigated in traixial tests, but lower rate-sensitivity in the mechanical response of MSW in direct shear tests

were observed.

Unlike the results of triaxial tests with aging process, mobilized shear strength level of MSW samples tested under direct

shearing decreased comparing fresh samples. It was also observed that altering the fiber content and their orientation could

affect the mechanical response and shear strength of the MSW. Additionally, there is an optimum fiber angle in MSW which

yields the highest level of shearing strength.

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The physical properties of the municipal solid waste (MSW) in Kahrizak Landfill (Tehran, Iran) and its changes due to aging were investigated in this research. A study of the components of the fresh MSW in this landfill showed that more than 60% of it was made from the wastes of foods, fruits, vegetables and organic materials. Next to that, paper/cardboard and plastics, with contributions of 14% and 11%, comprised the greatest parts of the waste materials. Meanwhile, the results obtained from these studies revealed that the contribution of the organic part has been decreased during the last two decade by about 20% while the plastics and paper/cardboard contribution has been increased by the same amount. In order to investigate the effect of aging on the physical properties of MSW, waste samples of 5.5, 14 and 21 years of age were obtained by excavating the aged waste burial regions of this landfill. A study of the changes in the composition of waste materials through aging also revealed that the portion of paste was decreased from 25% to 40% due to the decomposition process, while the contribution of plastics and fabrics was increased up to 200%. Particle size became finer with the mean size being reduced from 70 mm in the fresh wastes to 20 mm in 21-year-old wastes due to the decomposition process. The moisture content of the fresh waste samples was reported to be more than 150%, which was considerably larger than that of other existing landfills. Along with the increase in the age of the waste samples, the moisture content was decreased by as much as one third of the initial value. Furthermore, since the waste mass became more homogeneous by age, the variation of the moisture content was reduced. The organic content of the 14-year-old waste was found to be 20%, which was less than 0.3 of the initial value. Moreover, the variation of the organic content in the waste samples was directly related to the moisture content of the samples with both parameters being reduced to less than one third of the initial value in the older samples. Investigation of the moisture content and the organic content of the aged samples showed that the burial location had a significant effect on the trend of variations. The average density of the fresh waste was measured to be 3.5 and 7.3 kN/m3 after production and burial, respectively. It was found that the average density of the fresh waste grew to about 12kN/m3 as the age was increased.

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This paper has applied operation research to solid waste disposal by which two objective functions are optimized to minimize the expected operational costs (maximize revenues) and the expected net carbon dioxide equivalent (CDE) emissions. Types and uncertain amounts of solid wastes as well as costs of electricity were factored into the selection decision of solid waste disposal, i.e. landfill, incineration, composting and recycling. An optimization model was applied to the solid waste disposal of Bangkok, Thailand. In addition, a multi-objective optimization technique was proposed for a tradeoff decision-making between minimum operational costs and CDE emissions. Composting and landfill are effective alternatives for Bangkok’s solid waste disposal system. The operational costs and net CDE emissions are highly correlated with the quantity of solid waste. Policy-makers and plant operators could adopt the proposed optimization model under uncertainty in the selection of an optimal solid waste disposal.