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Effect of geomembrane liner on landfill stability under long-term loading: interfacial shear test and numerical simulation

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Xiong Xia
Xiong Xia
Xiong Xia
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Ziqing Pan
Ziqing Pan
Ziqing Pan
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Hongyong Qiu
Hongyong Qiu
Hongyong Qiu
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Xiankun Xie
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Xiankun Xie
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Abstract and Figures

Clay liners have been widely used in landfill engineering. However, large-scale clay excavation causes secondary environmental damage. This study investigates the feasibility of replacing clay liners with high-density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembranes with different specifications and parameters. Laboratory interface shear tests between municipal solid waste (MSW) samples of different ages and geomembranes were conducted to study the influence of landfill age on interface shear strength. Finite element method was adopted to compare the long-term stability of landfills with HDPE geomembrane versus clay as intermediate liner. The interfacial shear test results show that the cohesion of MSW increases in a short term and then decreases with landfill age. The internal friction angle exhibits an increasing trend with advancing age, however, the rate of its increment declines with age. The rough accuracy of the film surface can increase the interfacial shear strength between MSW. The simulation results show that, unlike clay-lined landfills, the sliding surface of geomembrane-lined landfills is discontinuous at the lining interface, which can delay the penetration of slip surfaces and block the formation of slip zone in the landfill. In addition, the maximum displacement of landfills with geomembrane is 10% lower than that with clay, and the absolute displacement of slope toe decreases with the increase of roughness at the interface of geomembrane. Compared with clay-lined landfills, the overall stability safety factor increased by 18.5–30%. This study provides references for landfill design and on-site stability evaluation, contributing to enhanced long-term stability.
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Vol.:(0123456789)
Environmental Science and Pollution Research (2024) 31:27345–27355
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-024-32953-3
RESEARCH ARTICLE
Effect ofgeomembrane liner onlandfill stability underlong‑term
loading: interfacial shear test andnumerical simulation
XiongXia1,2· ZiqingPan1 · HongyongQiu2· XiankunXie2,3· KaiGuo1
Received: 23 October 2023 / Accepted: 12 March 2024 / Published online: 21 March 2024
© The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany, part of Springer Nature 2024
Abstract
Clay liners have been widely used in landfill engineering. However, large-scale clay excavation causes secondary envi-
ronmental damage. This study investigates the feasibility of replacing clay liners with high-density polyethylene (HDPE)
geomembranes with different specifications and parameters. Laboratory interface shear tests between municipal solid waste
(MSW) samples of different ages and geomembranes were conducted to study the influence of landfill age on interface shear
strength. Finite element method was adopted to compare the long-term stability of landfills with HDPE geomembrane versus
clay as intermediate liner. The interfacial shear test results show that the cohesion of MSW increases in a short term and then
decreases with landfill age. The internal friction angle exhibits an increasing trend with advancing age, however, the rate of
its increment declines withage.The rough accuracy of the film surface can increase the interfacial shear strength between
MSW. The simulation results show that, unlike clay-lined landfills, the sliding surface of geomembrane-lined landfills is
discontinuous at the lining interface, which can delay the penetration of slip surfaces and block the formation of slip zone
in the landfill. In addition, the maximum displacement of landfills with geomembrane is 10% lower than that with clay, and
the absolute displacement of slope toe decreases with the increase of roughness at the interface of geomembrane. Compared
with clay-lined landfills, the overall stability safety factor increased by 18.5–30%. This study provides references for landfill
design and on-site stability evaluation, contributing to enhanced long-term stability.
Keywords Landfills· Stability· Age· HDPE geomembrane· Soil-geomembrane interface shear
Introduction
Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills slip due to the time
variability of MSW, the decrease of shear strength, and the
increase in landfill height. The reduction in shear strength
is the main reason for the slippage of the layered landfill
(Koerner and Soong 2000; Blight 2008; Huang and Fan
2016). Due to the complex composition of MSW in the
landfill, a large amount of organic matter and fibrous mate-
rial are degraded over time. The strength characteristics will
change accordingly; part of the landfill body will slip along
the internal potential slip plane (Fan etal. 2016; Chavan
etal. 2019; Hossain and Haque 2009). The instability of the
landfill will cause a large amount of landfill waste and lea-
chate to slide out of the site, which may cause severe envi-
ronmental pollution and even cause casualties and property
damage (Li etal. 2021; Eker and Bascetin 2022a, 2022b).
The alarming finding that inorganic salt solutions, organic
matter, and heavy metals in landfill leachate can increase the
hydraulic conductivity of clay liners and geosynthetic clay
liners, enabling dangerous leachate passage into groundwa-
ter (Özçoban etal. 2022), underscores the need for more
protective and fail-safe landfill designs.
The shear strength of the soil-geomembrane interface in
MSW landfill is an important factor affecting slope stabil-
ity and has been extensively explored over the past decade
(Stark etal. 2009; Chang and Feng 2020; Brachman and
Sabir 2013). Hossain etal. (2009, 2009) conducted shear
Responsible Editor: Guilherme Luiz Dotto
* Ziqing Pan
504271023@qq.com
1 School ofEnvironmental Science andEngineering,
Changzhou University, Changzhou213164, China
2 School ofUrban Construction, Changzhou University,
Changzhou213164, China
3 Guangdong Wuhua Economic Development Zone
Management Committee Service Center, Guangdong514400,
China
Content courtesy of Springer Nature, terms of use apply. Rights reserved.
... It was detected that as the surface texturing was increased, a more pronounced wear/abrasion occurred that resulted in observing deeper mechanical interaction. Xia et al. (2024) reported the experimental and numerical results of a geoenvironmental study concerned with the geomembrane liners subjected to mutual interaction with municipal solid waste (MSW) samples of different ages in landfill applications. It was shown that the sliding surface of geomembrane-lined landfills is discontinuous at the lining interface, which can delay the penetration of slip surfaces and block the formation of slip, and thus, prevent substantial abrasive wear induced on the geomembrane liners. ...
... Although they revealed the mutual interaction between geomembranes and MSW of different ages, and the resulting wear on the liner surface, they didn't either measure the occurrence of surficial wear or quantify the degree and severity of this induced abrasive action and the resultant surface topographical changes developed on the liner surface of geomembranes produced from distinct base/core polymer resins such as HDPE, LLDPE, and PVC. In this regard, the current study presented in this paper could supplement the previous study of Xia et al. (2024) by extending understanding in terms of the detection and the quantification of surface topographical alterations on the geomembrane liners manufactured from various base polymeric materials including HDPE, LLDPE, PVC due to induced abrasive action, and hence, the generated surficial wear. ...
... ,Paikowski et al. (1995),Frost et al. (2002),Vangla and Gali (2016),Araujo et al. (2022),Khan and Latha (2023),Xu et al. (2023), andXia et al. (2024). To this end, the two dimensional (2D) surface topography alterations of a synthetic geo-material (geomembrane) and its different types manufactured from distinct base polymers that are commonly utilized in typical geotechnical applications including the infrastructural projects such as embankments, landfills, dams was intended to experimentally be studied by the author. ...
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