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Monitoring of Landfill Settlement by Means of Horizontal Inclinometers

Conference Paper · September 2009

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-642-04460-1_53

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 Proc. of Int. Symp. on Geoenvironmental Eng., ISGE2009
September 8-10, 2009, Hangzhou, China

MONITORING OF LANDFILL SETTLEMENT

BY MEANS OF HORIZONTAL INCLINOMETERS
Xiao-Bing XU1, Hai-Yun WEI2, Tony L. T. ZHAN3, Yun-Min CHEN4 and Yao-Shang WANG5

ABSTRACT: Waste settlement will affect the liner system and ultimate usage of the municipal solid waste landfill
significantly. Settlement at different depths of a landfill cell in Shanghai Laogang Landfill, China, is monitored by
means of horizontal inclinometers. The settlement profiles at different elevation of the landfill were obtained to
investigate the settlement behavior of the Chinese MSW landfill. The monitoring results for the bottom horizontal
inclinometer showed that the settlement monitoring method used in the landfill cell has a good accuracy. Large
secondary settlement is found for the top horizontal inclinometer near the surface of the landfill cell.

KEYWORDS: settlement, MSW, landfill, horizontal inclinometer

INTRODUCTION selected to install horizontal inclinometers for settlement

monitoring.
Settlement measurements derived from the survey of
surface benchmarks is related to secondary compression
after landfill closure, and it can be difficult to interpret
these measurements since secondary settlement of lower
waste layers had started long time before (Oliver and
Gourc 2008). As considerable amount of settlement
occurs during the filling and construction stages, the
accurate prediction of primary and secondary settlement
of layers at different depths (with different age) during
filling process would allow estimation of air space,
planning of construction sequence, design of both
intermediate and final covers as well as planning for
expansions (Hunte et al. 2007). A program to monitor
waste settlement was conducted at a field-scale landfill
cell in Shanghai Laogang Landfill since September 2006.
The objective of the program is to collect quantitative Fig. 1 Plan view of landfill cell
data on settlements at different depths of the landfill cell
during filling and after closure, and to calibrate a model As shown in Fig. 2, a maximum thickness of about
for predicting future settlement and the remaining air 8m wastes are deposited in the landfill cell. The cell
space of the landfill. Settlement data have been collected accepted about 100,000 tones of municipal solid waste
through six horizontal inclinometers installed at different from Shanghai. A 1.5mm thick HDPE geomembrane and
depths. About two years’ monitoring of the bottom and a 500mm gravel drainage layer are constructed at the
top horizontal inclinometers are reported in this paper. bottom of the landfill cell. The waste is divided into
three layers by two 300mm thick intermediate soil
SITE DESCRIPTION AND MONITORING covers and finally covered with a 650mm thick clay liner.
PROGRAM Working principle of the horizontal inclinometer is
shown in Fig. 3. A flexible HDPE pipe which has a
As shown in Fig. 1, the pilot project covers an area of 63mm outside diameter and 53mm inside diameter is
200m×125m. The whole landfill cell is divided into two buried in a trench in the wastes, with two exits on the
areas by an embankment. In the western area (1#), two landfill sides. A measuring probe with a water pressure
cross-sections which are 30m apart from each other are

1
Ph.D. Student. MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Zhejiang University, 310027, China.
2
Engineer, Zhejiang Institute of Hydraulics and Estuary, 310020, China; Formerly Ph.D. Student of Zhejiang University, 310027,
China.
3
Professor. MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Zhejiang University, 310027, China. Email:
zhanlt@zju.edu.cn
4
Professor. MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Zhejiang University, 310027, China.
5
Master Student. MOE Key Laboratory of Soft Soils and Geoenvironmental Engineering, Zhejiang University, 310027, China.
 Fig. 2 Section view of landfill cell
Fig. 3 Working principle of the horizontal inclinometer
gauge is sent into the HDPE pipe through a pre-installed
string in that pipe. Original data monitored from the
horizontal inclinometer is a water pressure head recorded
by the probe. The water pressure head represents the
difference in elevation between the position of the
measuring probe and a fixed reference point outside the
pipe. When the measuring probe is sent to the prescribed
point of the HDPE pipe, the difference in elevation
between the measuring point and the fixed reference
point is registered, and the waste settlement indicated by
the position of the HDPE pipe at any time is possible to
be obtained. The accuracy of the water pressure head
gauge used is ±7 mm.
The first two horizontal inclinometers are installed at
the bottom of the first waste layer in the two cross-
sections. The second two in the second waste layer are
about 1m above the first intermediate soil cover. The last
two in the third waste layer are just beneath the cover
clay liner. Composition of the municipal solid waste
from Shanghai is shown in Table 1. Table 2 shows the
timeline of the landfill cell construction and filling
processes.
Table 1 Composition of municipal solid waste from
Shanghai (Sun et al. 2008)
Plastics,
Waste Glass,
Organic textile, Others
composition metal
wood
Content (Wet
65 30 2.5 2.5
weight %)
Table 2 Timeline of landfill cell construction and filling
Waste
thickness
Date Description
above the
bottom (m)
Bottom liner, horizontal
2006.9.1 0
inclinometer
2007.1.8 3 Intermediate soil layer
2007.2.7 5 Horizontal inclinometer
2007.2.16 6 Intermediate soil layer
2007.3.1 8 Clay liner cover (closure)
2007.4.5 8 Horizontal inclinometer
MONITORING RESULT AND DISCUSSION
The horizontal inclinometer beneath the first waste
layer was installed on Sep 1st 2006, and its first
monitoring was made on Nov 7th 2006. The settlement
during the filling of the first 1m thick wastes between
Sep 1st 2006 and Nov 7th 2006 was not recorded. About
7m thick wastes were deposited after Nov 7th 2006, and
the landfill cell was closed on March 1st 2007. Latest
monitoring was made on Nov 22nd 2008.
The first monitoring results on Nov 7th 2006 (Fig.
4(a)) show us the profile of the bottom HDPE pipe
which is consistent with the actual bottom contour of the
landfill cell. At the horizontal position from 0m to 20m
and that from 110m to 120m, there are two significant
inclines as constructed. The slope of the bottom from
20m to 110m is about 2.2%. It also indicates that the
settlement monitoring method through the horizontal
inclinometer has a good accuracy of ±1cm.
As shown in Fig. 4(b), about two years’ monitoring
from Nov 7th 2006 to Nov 22nd 2008 shows an average
value of 5.9cm settlement for the bottom horizontal
inclinometer, and the maximum settlement is about
29.1cm. As there is relatively loose soil layers (0~50cm
thick) under the bottom horizontal inclinometer, the
settlement consist of both compression of soil layers and
consolidation of the ground under the landfill cell.
The top horizontal inclinometer is just beneath the
cover clay liner. As the first monitoring was made after
landfill closure, settlement monitored is secondary
compression due to creep and biodegradation. Evolution
of the top horizontal inclinometer at the horizontal
positions from 30m to 90m is shown in Fig. 5(a) and Fig.
5(b). The maximum settlement on Nov 22nd 2008 from
April 5th 2007 occurs in the middle of the landfill cell
which is about 185.9cm.

(a) 9

7
Elevation (m)

3 2006-11-7
2008-11-22
2
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120
South Horizontal position (m) North

(b) Horizontal position (m)

South North
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120

0
Settlement (cm)

20

40

2008-11-22
60
Fig. 4 Evolution of bottom horizontal inclinometer at the eastern cross-section
(a)
13

12

11
Elevation (m).

10

2007-4-8 2007-4-28
9 2007-6-8 2007-7-22
2007-9-24 2008-3-27
2008-11-22
8
30 40 50 60 70 80 90
South Horizontal position (m)
North
 Horizontal position (m)
(b) South North
30 40 50 60 70 80 90
0

50
Settlement (cm)

100

150

200 2007-4-28 2007-6-8

2007-7-22 2007-9-24
2008-3-27 2008-11-22
250

Fig. 5 Evolution of the top horizontal inclinometer at the eastern cross-section

As shown in Fig. 6, the average settlement within a consolidation of the ground under the landfill cell.
period of about 594 days (from April 5th 2007 to Nov Within a period of about 594 days after the first
22nd 2008) is about 162.4cm which is 20.3% of the monitoring on April 5th 2007, the average secondary
finished level (i.e. about 8m thick wastes beneath the top settlement monitored near the surface of the landfill cell
inclinometer). Further monitoring of settlement in the is large which is about 144cm, and it is 20.3% of the
landfill cell and the analysis associated with the finished level (i.e. about 8m thick wastes beneath the top
calibration of a settlement model is in progress. inclinometer).

Time (days)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
0 100 200 300 400 500 600 700
0 This work were supported by the key fund of the
20 Average settlement of the top National Natural Science Foundation (research grant:
horizontal inclinometer 50538080), the National High Technology Research and
Settlement (cm).

40
60 Development Program of China (2003AA644020) and
80 financial support from Bureau of Science and
100 Technology of Suzhou (research grant: SS0733)
120
140
REFERENCES
160
180
Hunte C, Hettiaratchi P, Meegoda JN, Hettiarachchi CH
(2007). Settlement of bioreactor landfills during
Fig. 6 Average settlement of the top horizontal filling operation. New Peaks in Geotechnics. Geo-
inclinometer at horizontal positions from 30m to 90m at Denver.
the eastern cross-section
Oliver F, Gourc J.P. (2008). Geomechanical monitoring
CONCLUSION of sanitary landfill sites: control of settlement and
associated parameters. 1st Middle European
Monitoring results of the bottom horizontal Conference on Landfill Technology. Budapest.
inclinometer indicates that the settlement monitoring Hungarian Academy of Sciences.
method has a good accuracy of ±1cm. About two years’
monitoring from Nov 7th 2006 to Nov 22nd 2008 shows Sun XJ, Xu DM, Li X, Li B (2008). Analysis of
that an average value of 5.9cm settlement occurred for composition and caloric value of municipal solid
the bottom horizontal inclinometer. This settlement waste in Shanghai. Journal of Tongji University
consist of both the compression of relatively loose soil (Natural Science). 36(3): 356-360 (in Chinese).
layers under the bottom horizontal inclinometer and

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