The air permeability coefficient has a high correlation with the water content of municipal solid waste. In this study, continuous drying methodology using a tension meter was employed to construct the soil water characteristic curve of municipal solid waste (M-SWCC). The municipal solid waste air permeability test was conducted by a newly designed apparatus. The measured M-SWCC was well reproduced by the van Genuchten (V-G) model and was used to predict the parameters of typical points in M-SWCC, including saturated water content, field capacity, residual water content and water content at the inflection point. It was found that the M-SWCC was significantly influenced by void ratio. The final evaporation and test period of M-SWCC increase with the increase in void ratio of municipal solid waste. The evolution of air permeability coefficient with water content of municipal solid waste depicted three distinct characteristic stages. It was observed that the water contents that corresponded to the two cut-off points of the three stages were residual water content and water content at the inflection point, respectively. The air permeability coefficient of municipal solid waste decreased with the increase of the water content from zero to the residual water content. The air permeability coefficient was almost invariable when the water content increased from residual water content to the water content at the inflection point. When the water content of municipal solid waste exceeded the water content at the inflection point, the air permeability coefficient sharply decreased with the increase of water content.
Slope instability occurs in landfills owing to increased internal temperatures. However, strength characteristic tests for solid waste (SW) and landfill slope stability (SS) calculations that consider temperature variations are scarce in the literature. In this study, we conducted triaxial tests on SW under a range of temperature conditions and proposed the circular slide method (CSM) for calculating SS in consideration of temperature effects. SW cohesion decreased linearly with increasing temperature, whereas the internal friction angle remained essentially unchanged. Our results showed that higher temperatures reduced the SW shear strength, changing the most dangerous sliding arc away from the slope toe. The landfill slope safety factor decreased by more than 20% with an increase of the maximum temperature from 20°C to 50°C. Reduction of the leachate level (LL) led to a decrease in the landfill high-temperature zone and the safety factor increased according to LL and temperature distribution. If cooling pipes are used to control the SW temperature, we recommend arranging the cooling pipes on the landfill liner. The proposed CSM can be used to analyse landfill SS.
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