Keywords: solid based landfills, shear strength stability.

Every day, millions of pounds of municipal solid waste (MSW) are generated. In most or almost all of the world's major urban centers, landfilling is the least expensive method of waste disposal, as well as the most common. As more landfills are constructed, engineers need to use care in selecting design parameters. Landfill failures can expose the public to a wide variety of health hazards and risks. Landfill failures can also create ecological and environmental disasters that adversely affect the landfill's natural surroundings to a significant degree. These and the other reasons made the determination of design parameters for landfills a growing field of interest. Geotechnical parameters are important for the design of each of the subsystems. In particular, this paper examined the shear strength of MSW. This parameter is important for both seismic and static slope stability. Published data has not yet resulted in a clear set of design values for MSW shear strength, and this paper attempted to progress in that direction.

This study aimed to better understand the shear behaviour of municipal solid waste by collecting and analyzing all available published data. The importance of municipal solid waste shear strength as a design property is clarified. The cohesive behaviour of municipal solid waste is reported as cohesion and friction angle pairs. Data is collected from laboratory experiments on municipal solid waste and model waste, in-situ testing, back-analyses, and case histories. Data is plotted and sorted by the method by which it was obtained. Artificial waste data is critiqued for consistency with other datasets. Data plots are compared and trends are defined and analyzed. Scatter in the data is observed and discussed. Standard cone penetration tests, vane shear tests, tri axial tests, and in-situ direct shear testing are compared and analyzed for applicability and consistency with the dataset. Design parameter ranges are investigated based on trends in the plotted data. It as been shown that model or artifice waste is not a very good predictor of shear behaviour. Case histories and lab data exhibited large amounts of scatter, but lower bounds and reasonable design parameters have been suggested by the data. It is suggested by the researcher that variability in landfill content from place to place and from time to time.

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