Landfill Settlement with Decomposition and Gas Generation

A one-dimensional multiphase numerical model is developed to simulate the vertical settlement involving liquid and gas flows in a deformable settling municipal solid waste MSW landfill. MSW is represented by a chemical composition, and a global stoichiometric reaction is used to estimate the maximum yield of gas generation. Following the general assumption accepted in the literature, the gas generated by waste decomposition is assumed to comprise of methane CH4 and carbon dioxide CO2 . The gas generation rate follows an exponentially decaying function of time. The gas generation model developed based on a first-order kinetic single-bioreactor approach includes the governing equations of gas migration, liquid flow, and landfill deformation. The Galerkin finite element method is used to solve the resulting equations. The model developed can be used to estimate the transient and ultimate settlements due to waste decomposition and gas generation in MSW landfills. The proposed model can estimate the waste porosity, gas pressure, liquid pressure, gas saturation, liquid saturation, and stress distributions in settling landfills. The results obtained for a deformable landfill are compared with a landfill having a rigid solid skeleton. Due to settlement, the depth of waste is 27% smaller in deformable landfills than that of the rigid ones. DOI: 10.1061/ ASCE 0733-9372 2005 131:9 1311 CE Database subject headings: Landfills; Settlement; Solid wastes; Mathematical models; Waste management; Decomposition; Gas.