The release of intracellular water during degradation process contributes to the great leachate production and settlement of landfilled high kitchen waste content MSW(HKWC-MSW). An oven-drying and absorbent-paper combined method was proposed to measure the intracellular and interparticle water contents of HKWC-MSW. Two degradation experiments were carried out to study the release process of intracellular water and its effect on the hydro-mechanical behaviors of HKWC-MSW.It was found that the two degradation experiments showed similar degradation behaviors with BOD/COD decreasing with time in the early stage. In the first degradation experiment, most intracellular water was released during the first two months, and the degradation of degradable matter in kitchen waste(KW) was much slower than the release process of intracellular water. The particle size became smaller and the overall grain specific gravity increased during the fast release process of intracellular water.In the second degradation experiment, after two-year degradation, the total leachate production was about 45.2% of the initial wet weight of HKWC-MSW specimen. Water retention capacity θ_f increased from 0.23 to 0.58 during 1–69 d, which might be caused by the decrease of particle size and compression of waste skeleton. As almost all the intracellular water was released after 80-day degradation, during the latter stage of leachate drainage under gravity, θ_f decreased and was close to the total volumetric water content. The total compression strain was about 0.39. The secondary compression strain during 1–80 d(i.e., about 0.07)was considered to be mainly resulted by the release of intracellular water and the subsequent drainage of leachate, and it accounted for about 22.6% of the total secondary compression strain.
In a landfill, excessive tensile strains or failure of the liner system due to localized subsidence underneath the geosynthetic liner, is a concern in design and operation of the landfill. The localized subsidence can be commonly withstood by reinforcements such as geogrids. A total of nine model tests were carried out to study the influence of soil arching in overburden sandy soil on the geosynthetics and the interaction between the soil and the geosynthetics. The localized subsidence was modeled by a strip trapdoor under the geosynthetic reinforcements. The reinforcement includes several layers of polyvinylchlorid (PVC) membrane or both PVC membrane and a compacted clay layer. Test results show that the vertical soil pressure acting on the geosynthetics within the subsidence zone is strongly related to the deflection of the geosynthetics. The soil pressure acting on the deflected geosynthetics will decrease to a minimum value with respect to its deflection if the final deflection is large enough, and this minimum value is almost independent of the overburden height. Otherwise, the deflection of geosynthetics cannot result in a full degree of soil arching, and the soil pressure within the subsidence zone increases with the increase of overburden height. Deflections and strains of the geosynthetics obviously decrease with the increase of their tensile stiffness. The presence of a compacted clay layer buffer can therefore reduce both deflections and strains of the geosynthetics. Finally, a composite liner structure is recommended for landfills to withstand the localized subsidences.
