3rd International Symposium on Cone Penetration Testing, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA - 2014

CPTu at a municipal solid waste site in Delhi, India

B.J. Ramaiah & G.V. Ramana
Indian Institute of Technology Delhi, New Delhi, India

ABSTRACT: Cone penetration testing with measurement of pore pressure (CPTU) is an attractive site
investigation tool particularly for landfill engineering as it precludes health hazards associated with con-
ventional boring methods. The article presents the data of six CPTUs conducted at operating and closed
phases of a Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) site in Delhi and compared with data reported for MSW land-
fills in USA, Brazil, Portugal and China. Dynamic pore pressure profiles (u2) indicated that the presence
of leachate level (phreatic surface) at around 5 m depth with relatively free draining material below as the
u2 profile is almost equal to hydro-static pressure. Average tip resistance varied from 1.5 to 2 MPa in the
top 5 m and 3 to 4 MPa from 5 to 13 m. The average friction ratio is about 2%. Interpretation done using
the updated SBT chart proposed by Robertson (2010) together with u2 profiles indicated MSW behavior
would be similar to that of sand mixtures.

1 INTRODUCTION

The electric cone penetration test (CPT) has been in use for over 40 years in geotechnical practice for
soils because of its advantages over traditional methods of site investigation such as drilling and sam-
pling as it is fast, repeatable and economical. In addition, it provides near continuous data and has strong
theoretical background (Robertson 2012). Cone penetration test with pore pressure measurement
(CPTU) is an attractive site investigation tool for municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill engineering as it
precludes health hazards associated with conventional boring methods. In addition, CPTU can be expe-
dient to assess the behavior of material at the in-situ conditions, as collection of undisturbed samples of
such material is difficult. Although CPT is becoming very popular and common in geotechnical prac-
tice, its usage has not been explored much in landfill engineering, which is evident from the limited data
reported in the literature.
Data and interpretation of CPT of MSW landfills reported in the literature from different countries
include: (1) Cartier & Baldit (1983) – Arnouville-les-Mantes landfill, France, (2) Hinkle (1990) – land-
fill in Wilmington, Los Angeles, USA, (3) Siegel et al. (1990) – OII landfill, California, USA, (4) Gri-
solia et al. (1991) – landfill site in Italy, (5) Bouzza et al. (1996) – Maldegem landfill, Belgium, (6) Ko-
da (1998) – Radiowo landfill, Warsaw, Poland, (7) Sanchez-Alciturri et al. (1993) – Meruelo landfill,
Spain, (8) Gomes et al. (2005) – Santo Triso, Portugal, (9) Zhan et al. (2008) – Suzhou landfill, China,
(10) Machado et al. (2010) – Bandeirantes landfill and Metropolitan Center landfill, Brazil and (11) Oni
(2010) – landfill at White’s Pit, UK. Based on the review from the above references, the following are
the general observations on CPT of MSW landfills:

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 o Tip resistance (qc), sleeve friction resistance (fs) are in general highly fluctuating owing to the
heterogeneous and variable nature of MSW. There are often high values of either qc or fs when
ever the cone tip encounters stiff or hard materials like gravel or stones, glass, metals etc.
o The qc and/or fs profiles showed a tendency of slight increase with depth, indicating the effect
confinement at depth and hence increase of the strength with depth.
o Generally, the depth up to which cone can be penetrated depends up on the type and control of
the waste at a landfill site. For example, as in the present case, if construction and demolition
(C&D) waste is also allowed at the landfill, the maximum penetration depth is limited to shallow
depths on the order of 7 to 14 m. In many cases, the CPT was terminated because of reaching the
thrust capacity of the machine, not by non-verticality of the CPT rods.
o Tip resistance ranged from 2 to 5 MPa and friction ratio is less than 6%.

This paper presents the data and interpretation of six CPTUs conducted at both fresh and closed phases
of an MSW landfill site in Delhi. Besides adding to the data base of the CPT of MSW landfills, the arti-
cle presents the potential applications of CPTU from hydro-dynamic studies point of view.

2 SITE DESCRIPTION

The site selected for the present study is the Ghazipur sanitary landfill in Delhi, India, which covers an
area of about 28 hectares (~ 283578 m2). The site is surrounded by fish, egg and poultry markets on the
northern side, Hindon Canal on the eastern side, habitation on southern side and Gazipur Dairy Farm on
the western side. Figure 1 shows the site as viewed from Google Earth, with the approximate coordi-
nates of 28°37′28.45′′N and 77°19′29.05′′E. The site started receiving MSW and construction and dem-
olition (C&D) waste from early 1984 as an unlined waste disposal site with the bottom elevation being
at about 3 m below the ground level. At present about 2600 metric tones of waste is being received daily
at this site from different zones of the city. The tipping method of disposal is employed at this and other
landfill sites in Delhi. Compaction of dumped waste is carried out through a leveling dozer during tip-
ping and by the tipping vehicles. A topographical survey conducted during August 2012 indicated that
the total height of the landfill is about 44 m above the ground level at the adjacent Dairy Farm (the west-
ern side of the site) and about 42 m above the road level at adjacent poultry market (on the northern
side). Slopes of the landfill were observed to be varying from 1V:1.43H – 1 V:1.19H for tall raisings (9
to 13 m) to 1V:0.36H – 1V:0.27H for short raisings (2 to 5 m). During a field visit, seeping of leachate
along the sloping faces and smoldering of waste was observed.

3 CONE PENETRATION TESTING

Six electric cone penetration tests with pore pressure measurement (CPTUs) were carried out at Ghazi-
pur sanitary landfill, Delhi. Six CPTUs include: two (GC1 & GC2) at operating phase and four (GC3 to
GC6) on a bench of closed phase of the landfill so as to make comparison between fresh and degraded
waste. Based on the information provided by the engineer in-charge of the landfill, at the time of field
investigation, the age of the waste at operating phase was less than three months and that of the closed
phase was about 10-12 years. The CPTU set up was a crawler mounted type that has a capacity of
providing up to 20 ton reaction. The cone was a conventional type with an apex angle of 60° and a nom-
inal base area of 1000 mm2. The cylindrical friction sleeve has a nominal area of 15000 mm2. The rate of
penetration was controlled at 20 mm/s. The net area ratio of the cone set up is 0.81. Readings of tip re-
sistance (qc), sleeve friction resistance (fs), dynamic pore pressure (u2), inclination measurements were
recorded at intervals of 10 mm penetration depth.

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 Pit Bench on which
GC6 GC3-GC6 were
GC5 GC4 conducted
GC2 GC3
GC1

Figure 1. Left image - Ghazipur sanitary landfill as of 02-April-2013 with CPT and pit locations marked (Image
Courtesy of Google Earth) and right image - typical cross section view of landfill slopes

Locations of the CPTUs, measured with a hand held GPS unit, are shown in Figure 1. Typical pro-
files of qc, fs and u2 of CPTUs conducted at operating phase (GC1-fresh waste) and closed phase (GC5-
old waste) of the landfill are shown in Figure 2, along with the CPTU profile of a soft clay deposit at a
site in Kuala Lampur, Malaysia (data courtesy of M/s Keller Ground Engineering India Pvt. Ltd., Delhi)
for comparison. It can be observed that the tip resistance and sleeve friction profiles of MSW landfill are
highly fluctuating owing to the heterogeneous nature of the MSW, compared to the relatively uniform
profiles of qc and fs for soft clay deposit. The high values of qc are attributed to the cone tip encountering
stiff or rigid objects like stones or gravel, glass, metals, etc. It can also be observed that there is no sig-
nificant difference between qc and fs profiles of fresh and degraded waste. Both the qc and fs profiles
showed tendency of slight increase with depth (although the rate of increase with depth is small) indicat-
ing the effect of confinement.
The dynamic pore pressure profiles with depth indicated the presence of leachate level/phreatic sur-
face at about 5 m below the top level. It can be observed that the u2 profiles are almost equal to the hy-
drostatic pressure indicating that the MSW below the leachate level is relatively free draining as there is
no excess pore pressure developed during cone penetration. Figure 3 presents the histogram representa-
tion of measured qc and fs values for all six CPTUs at the site. The penetration depth reached is indicated
in parenthesis. 40-60% of the tip resistance is less than 2 MPa and 85-95% of the sleeve friction re-
sistance is less than 100 kPa.

3.1 Interpretation of CPT data

In the literature, interpretation of CPT data in MSW landfills has been done using the standard soil be-
havior type (SBT) charts proposed for soils. Although, these SBT charts are developed for conventional
soils, and because such charts are not available for materials like MSW, it is assumed that they are ap-
plicable for MSW also, so that they may be helpful for preliminary assessment of their behavior type. In
the current study, calculations and interpretation of CPT data were carried out using CPeT-IT software
that has a moving average routine to account for fluctuations in the data. Moving average over every
five data points (i.e., over every 50 mm depth interval) was taken for both qc and fs of each test and then
the friction ratio (Rf) was calculated. The qc obtained after performing moving average was normalized
(made dimensionless) with atmospheric pressure of 101.3 kPa (pa). Finally, the average friction ratio
(Rf) and dimensionless tip resistance (qc/pa) at same depth level of six CPTUs were calculated and the
resulting Rf and qc/pa values were plotted on the classification chart proposed by Robertson (2010) for

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assessing the SBT in Figure 4. It can be observed from Figure 4 that the MSW of the current study cor-
responds to the SBT of silt mixtures (clayey silt & silty clay) and sand mixtures (silty sand to sandy silt).
However, given the free draining nature of MSW observed from the u2 profiles (Fig. 2), the MSW be-
havior can be more towards that of sand mixtures (silty sand to sandy silt) than silt mixtures. This obser-
vation is also in corroboration from the compositional analysis, grain size distribution and isotropic con-
solidation carried out on the representative sample collected from the large pit excavated close to GC5 &
GC6 test locations. The details of the field and laboratory testing are discussed later in section 4.

qc (MPa) fs (kPa) u2 (kPa)

0 4 8 12 16 20 0 50 100 150 200 250 -25 0 25 50 75 100 125
0 0 0
GC1 - Fresh waste GC1 - fresh waste
1 GC5 - Old waste 1 GC5 - Old waste 1
Soft clay Soft clay
2 2 2
3 3 3
GC1-fresh waste
4 4 4 GC5-old waste

5 5 5
6 6 6
Depth (m)

7 7 7
8 8 8 Hydrostatic line

9 9 9
10 10 10
11 11 11
12 12 12
13 13 13
14 14 14

Figure 2. Typical results of CPTUs conducted at operating and closed phases of the MSW landfill

70 100
GC1 (12.35m) GC1 (12.35m)
Fresh 90 Fresh
60
Percentage frequency

GC2 (11.45m) GC2 (11.45m)

Percentage frequency

w aste 80 w aste
50 GC3 (5.66m) GC3 (5.66m)
70
GC4 (7.14m) Old GC4 (7.14m) Old
40 60
w aste w aste
GC5 (13.33m) GC5 (13.33m)
50
30 GC6 (11.52m) GC6 (11.52m)
40
20 30
(b)
(a) 20
10
10
0 0
0-2 2-4 4-10 10-20 >20 0-100 100-200 200-300
Tip resistance, qc (MPa) Sleeve friction, fs (kPa)

Figure 3. Histogram representation of measured: (a) tip resistance and (b) sleeve friction of all CPTUs. Value in
parenthesis of legend indicates penetration depth reached.

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3
10
 
3
10

2
10
2
10
q c /p a

q c /p a
1
10 10
1

0
0 10
10 0.1 1 10

0.1 1 10 R f  (% )
R f  (% )

Z o n e       SBT
   1 S ens itive  fine  g ra ined  U S A  (D ata  courtes y  of  P rof.  K avaz anjian)
   2 C la y  -­‐  O rg a nic  s oil  B raz il  (Machado  et  al.  2010)
   3 C la ys :  c la y  to  s ilty  c la y  P ortug al  (G omes  et  al.  2005)
   4 S ilt  m ixtures :  c la yey  s ilt  &  s ilty  c la y  C hina  (Z han  et  al.  2008)
   5 S a nd  m ixtures :  s ilty  s a nd  to  s a ndy  s ilt  India  (C urrent  s tudy)
   6 S a nds :  c lea n  s a nds  to  s ilty  s a nds  Manas s ero  et  al.  1996  propos ed  rang e
   7 D ens e  s a nd  to  g ra velly  s a nd  P ropos ed  rang e  for  MS W  landfills
   8 S tiff  s a nd  to  c la yey  s a nd
   9 S tiff  fine-­‐g ra ined

Figure 4. Interpretation of CPT data of current study and that of MSW landfills of USA, Brazil, Portugal and
China using Robertson 2010 updated soil behavior type (SBT) chart

CPT data reported for other landfill sites in USA, Brazil and Portugal was collected and similar pro-
cedure described above was followed for calculating the average Rf and qc/pa and the results were plot-
ted in Figure 4. The details of the collected raw data include: (1) a landfill site in USA (data courtesy of
Professor E. Kavazanjian, pers. comm.) – five CPT soundings, (2) Metropolitan Center landfill, Brazil
(Machado et al. 2010) – three CPT soundings, (3) a landfill in Santo Tirso, Portugal (Gomes et al. 2005)
– four CPT soundings. The idealized profiles of qc and Rf from two CPT soundings reported for Suzhou
landfill, China (Zhan et al. 2008) is also shown in Figure 4 for comparison. Also shown in Figure 4 is
the range proposed by Manassero et al. (1996) based on the data reported by Siegel et al. (1990), Hinkle
(1990), Jessberger & Kockel (1991), Sanchez-Alciturri et al. (1993) and Koda & Paprocki (1995), avail-
able during that time. A modified zone has been proposed in Figure 4 based on the improved database
from different countries for preliminary use in landfill engineering.

1087
  
0
10
3
N orm a liz e d  c one  re s is ta nc e ,  Q tn 10 0.1

Z o n e       SBT
10
2    1 S ens itive  fine  g ra ined  U S A  (D
   2 C la y  -­‐  O rg a nic  s oil  B raz il  (
   3 C la ys :  c la y  to  s ilty  c la y  P ortug
   4 S ilt  m ixtures :  c la yey  s ilt  &  s ilty  c la y  C hina  (
   5 S a nd  m ixtures :  s ilty  s a nd  to  s a ndy  s ilt  India  (C

 
   6 S a nds :  c lea n  s a nds  to  s ilty  s a nds  Manas
1
10    7 D ens e  s a nd  to  g ra velly  s a nd  P ropos
   8 S tiff  s a nd  to  c la yey  s a nd
   9 S tiff  fine-­‐g ra ined

0
10
0.1 1 10

N orma liz ed  fric tion  ra tio,  F r  (% )

Figure 5. Interpretation of CPT data of the current study using Robertson (2009) normalized SBT chart

Interpretation of the CPT data of the current study is also carried out using the normalized SBT
(SBTn) chart proposed by Robertson (2009). The measured tip resistance (qc) of each sounding was cor-
rected for unequal end area effect based on the net area ratio of 0.81 (reported by the cone manufactur-
er). Normalized cone resistance (Qtn) and normalized friction ratio (Fr) were calculated based on the
equations suggested by Robertson (2009). The results of the average Qtn and average Fr of the six CPTU
soundings are plotted on the SBTn chart of Robertson (2009) and are shown in Figure 5. It can be ob-
served from Figure 5 that slightly more CPT data has moved in the Zone 5 (sand mixtures) of SBTn
chart compared to SBT chart of Robertson (2010).

4 FIELD AND LABORATORY TESTING

A large pit of about 2.5 m x 1.5 m x 2.0 m was excavated with a back-hoe close to GC5 & GC6 test lo-
cations to determine the surface in-situ unit weight using water replacement method. The location of the
pit, measured with a hand held GPS unit is shown in Figure 1. The bulk density thus obtained was 12.03
kN/m3. A relatively wet condition of exhumed waste was observed. Bulk representative sample from
exhumed waste was collected for subsequent physical and mechanical characterization. Physical charac-
terization of collected waste was done in accordance with procedure suggested by Zekkos et al. (2010)
and included compositional analysis, grain size distribution, in-situ gravimetric moisture content, total
organic content, specific gravity and Atterberg limits. The remaining sample after determining moisture
content was air dried and then manually sorted in to different constituents. The results of physical char-
acterization are presented in Table 1. Grain size analysis of < 20 mm fraction using both dry and wet
methods was carried out and the results are presented in Figure 6, along with data reported in literature
for comparison. It should be noted that the waste sample has soil-sized fraction that has predominantly
non-plastic silty sand sized with gravel sized particles, which is a free draining material.

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 The results of isotropic consolidation behavior of 150 mm diameter and 305 mm height MSW sample
reconstituted with in-situ composition at in-situ dry density at different effective consolidation pressures
are presented in Figure 7. It should be noted that prior to isotropic consolidation, each MSW specimen
was saturated, first by passing deaired water from bottom to top at small effective confining pressure of
5 kPa and then by application of incremental back pressure as per the standard practice for soils. It can
be observed from Figure 7 that 95% degree of consolidation of the MSW sample was completed in less
than 30 minutes, indicating the free draining nature of the collected waste at the site.

Table 1. Results of physical characterization of collected MSW

Compositional analysis
Component Percentage by dry weight
< 20mm fraction 74.9
Gravel 17.0
Textile 2.2
Plastic 2.9
Wood & Wood-like 1.3
Paper 0.2
Glass 0.6
Miscellaneous 0.9
Physical properties
Property Measured value
In-situ moisture content (at 55°C) 65.3% (average of two 2.5kg samples)
$
Total organic content (at 440°C) 25.3 (average of 6 samples each 50 g)
Specific gravity$ 2.35 (average of 4 samples each 200 g)
Atterberg limits$ Non-Plastic
$
for < 20mm fraction only (soil-sized fraction)
Clay sized

Sand sized Gravel sized

ed r
siz lde
ze ble

Silt sized
ob

u
Bo
rse

d
C

Fine Medium Fine Coarse

a

si
Co

100
Jessberger (1994) - proposed range
90 Machado et al. (2010) - Dry sieving
Gomes & Lopes (2011) - wet sieving
80
Gomes & Lopes (2011) - Dry sieving
70 A1-Zekkos (2005) (<20mm only)
Percent finer (%)

A3-Zekkos (2005) (<20mm only)

60 C6-Zekkos (2005) (<20mm only)
50 Current study-wet sieving
Current study-Dry sieving
40
30
20
10
0
-3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3
10 10 10 10 10 10 10
Particle size (mm)
Figure 6. Results of grain size analysis of < 20mm fraction of collected waste

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 √Time (√minute)
0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8
0
10
Degree of consolidation (%)

25 kPa
20
50 kPa
30
40 100 kPa
50
60
70
80
90
100
110
Figure 7. Degree of consolidation of MSW samples during isotropic consolidation

The observations from the dynamic pore pressure profiles, physical characterization and isotropic
consolidation behavior suggests that the CPTU, in the present case, has clearly captured the pore pres-
sure behavior of MSW during cone penetration and hence may become an attractive site investigation
tool particularly for landfills where the MSW becomes nearly saturated i.e., in the case of unlined land-
fills and bioreactor landfills. In these situations, the excess pore pressure response may be important for
stability analysis (Koerner & Soong 2000). As the data available of CPTU in MSW landfills is limited,
further research is encouraged so that potential applications of CPTU for landfill engineering can be ex-
plored.

5 CONCLUSIONS

Data and interpretation has been presented from six cone penetration tests with pore pressure measure-
ments (CPTUs) conducted at an unlined and uncontrolled municipal solid waste (MSW) disposal site in
Delhi using the standard soil behavior type (SBT) chart proposed for soil by Robertson (2010) and nor-
malized SBT (SBTn) proposed by Robertson (2009) as well. The CPT data and interpretation from land-
fill sites from different countries is also presented for comparison. Interpretation of CPTU data indicated
that the behavior of MSW at the present site would be similar to that of silt mixtures (silty clay & clayey
silt) to sand mixtures (sandy silt to silty sand). However, the dynamic pore pressure profiles (u2) indicat-
ed that the MSW behavior could be more similar to that of sand mixtures because the MSW below the
saturated zone is relatively free draining as the u2 profile is almost equal to the hydro-static pressure.
This observation is also corroborated with physical characterization and isotropic compression behavior
of MSW sample collected from a test pit close to CPT locations. The grain size analysis of < 20 mm
fraction of collected waste sample has predominantly non-plastic silty sand sized with gravel sized parti-
cles, which is clearly a free draining material. The observations made in the present study indicate that
the CPTU could be an attractive site investigation tool for assessing the hydro dynamic behavior of satu-
rated MSW that may be required for stability analysis. As the data on CPTU of MSW landfills is lim-
ited, further research is encouraged for successfully exploring the advantages of CPTU for landfill engi-
neering.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

The financial support by Geosciences/Seismology Division, Ministry of Earth Sciences through research
scheme (MoES/P.O.(Seismo)/1(88)/2010) is greatly acknowledged. The permission and logistic support
from Municipal Corporation of Delhi is greatly appreciated. The authors are grateful to Prof. Edward
Kavazanjian, Dr. C. Gomes & Prof. M.L. Lopes and Dr. M. Karimpour-Fard & Prof. S.L. Machado for
providing the digital data of CPT of MSW landfill sites of USA, Portugal and Brazil respectively. The
authors also extend their appreciation to M/s Keller Ground Engineering India Pvt. Ltd., Delhi for their
generous support in cone penetration testing and also proving the digital data of CPT of a Soft clay de-
posit site in Malaysia.

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