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# Seismic Response and Stability Analysis of Landfills

(2) Dynamic Properties Landfill Waste

As mentioned earlier, landfill seismic criteria is often heavily site-specific. Evaluating the solid waste material properties is paramount when designing a landfill for seismic criteria. With landfill solid waste characterization comes uncertainty, variability, and heterogeneity. Thus, the evaluation of waste materials’ properties are performed in conjunction with the parametric and sensitivity studies to compensate for these issues (Kavazanjian et al. 2001).

The intrinsic properties of the landfill required for dynamic analyses include the following (Murali Krishna, 2009):

(i)   unit weight (ɣ)

(ii)  shear wave velocity (Vs)

(iii)   shear strength (τ)

(iv)  strain displacement material damping ratio (ζ)

(v)  normalized shear modulus (G/Gmax)

As mentioned earlier, this paper will use the OII case study to show examples of results for the properties mentioned above in Figures 1.2 – 1.6 taken from Kavazanjian & Matasovic, 1998. OII will serve as a thematic case study to show real-world application and exploration of seismic design of landfills.

Figure 1.2: (i) Unit weight variation with depth

Figure 1.3: (ii) Shear wave velocity versus depth

Figure 1.4: (iii) Shear strength

Figure 1.5: (iv) Shear deformation versus damping ratio

Figure 1.6: (v) Shear deformation versus normalized shear modulus