Syed Nasir Abbas 2012-MS-CES-10

Usman Shehzad 2012-MS-CEG-28

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As the population grows, more trash is produced

More landfills are full, more landfills close

 A vacant space over the landfill is left. This vacant space is

generally near the population center.

Some businessmen are realizing the opportunities for

developing these prime locations.

 Instead of building on top of soil, now there is a large layer of

refuse which will bear the Load.

 Therefore, when building on a closed landfill, there are special

geotechnical considerations that must be taken into account.

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 What is sanitary Landfills
 Components of Sanitary Landfill
 Settlement
 Shallow foundation
 Deep foundation
 Other Considerations
 Remedies

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 A waste disposal facility

 Layers of compacted garbage are covered with layers

of earth.

 When the facility reaches capacity, a cap is applied to

close the site.

 Developed in the 1930s, in response to growing

pressures created by a growing population.

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 Main components are
 Bottom Liner
 Cells (old or new)
 Leachate Collection System
 Storm water Drainage System
 Methane collection system
 Cover (or cap)
 Groundwater monitoring stations

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 Landfill settlement is a time-dependant issue extending
over several decades.

 The waste is compressed by its self-weight,

overburden, and external loads

o Types of Settlement

1. Uniform settlement and Differential settlement

2. Settlement due to chemical and biological
decomposition
3. Settlement due to soil beneath the landfill

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 initialcompression due to self-weight
and surcharge loads usually occur within
100 days.
 Due to variations in the thickness and
composition of the waste, large
differential settlements may also occur.
landfills between 8m to 10m thick
showed differential settlements can be
around 25% (over a 30m horizontal area)
for a period of 15 years
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 Chemical and biological decomposition processes
generally take years to reach completion, with the
specific rates varying widely depending upon
characteristics of a landfill site.

 Settlements due to raveling are generally difficult to

predict and seem to contribute a small percentage to
the total landfill settlement.

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 Further settlement can occur in the soil layers beneath
the landfill.

 This is most common In soft clays and should be

considered when designing the foundation.

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 When considering light structures(one or two story
wood frames), an engineer may choose a shallow
foundation.

 There are three main types of shallow foundations:

 Spread footings

 Tied footings

 Mat foundations.

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 Spread or tied foundations can easily be damaged due
to total or differential settlements.

 If a mat foundation is chosen, total settlements

generally will not damage the structure as much as
differential settlements.

 Common failures in foundations due to settlements are

shown in figure.

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Damage in structures due to settlement

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Shallow Foundation Failures from
Settlement

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 “Inmost cases a layer of engineered fill
sufficiently thick to provide essentially all
of the bearing capacity”

 Dynamic compaction(The purpose of

dynamic compaction is to densify the
landfill, thereby decreasing post-
construction settlement)

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 Other techniques which are rarely used

1) Placing a surcharge

2) Pressure grouting directly under the footings

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 If the site and structural improvements are
uneconomical or will not perform adequately, a deep
foundation system (usually driven piles) should be
selected.

 There are different types of deep foundation systems.

However, I will focus mainly on driven pile foundations.

Pile bearing capacity has 2 components.

1- Vertical component
2- horizontal component

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 Conventional methods mostly apply when designing
the vertical capacity of piles

 “First, a suitable geotechnical investigation should be

completed to characterize the bearing materials
underlying the landfill and their strengths.
Conventional vertical pile capacity analyses can then
be utilized to calculate pile capacity”.

 However, Sanitary fill cannot be relied on to provide

skin friction. Infact, the Sanitary fill causes a negative
skin friction. This negative skin friction is often referred
to as down drag.

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 Downdrag is an important factor in pile design. It adds
load to the pile and if ignored can cause foundation
failures.

 Downdrag is caused by the surrounding Sanitary fill

settling at a faster rate than the pile. This movement
around the pile “pulls” downward on the pile and adds
additional load.

 Vesic (1977) notes that this negative skin friction can

fully develop with movements of only 15 mm (0.6 in).

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 Common friction reducing techniques
include:
 casing a pile
 pre drilling and backfilling with
bentonite
 coating a pile with bitumen

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 Pile casings, often referred to as “double piles” consist
of an inner pile surrounded by an outer pile.

 The outer pile can be made of a variety of materials.

 Common materials are steel pipe, corrugated metal

pipe, and plastic pipe.

 The inner pile supports the loads from the structure

while the outer pile takes the load from the downdrag
forces.

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 Another technique used to reduce downdrag on
piles in Sanitary fill .

 A steel mandrel is driven down through the

Sanitary fill and then extracted. The resulting hole
can be filled with a bentonite slurry.

 Sometimes the hole may just be left open, but

usually collapse is an issue. Again, if lateral
capacity is required, this system should not be
chosen.

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 A third common method for mitigating the effects of
downdrag is covering the pile with a bitumen coating.

 In normal soils, this can greatly reduce downdrag

effects (approximately 75%). However, bitumen
covered concrete piles driven in refuse show that a
reduction of 30% to 60% is reasonable.

 The chemicals in the Sanitary fill can’t degrade or

dissolve the bitumen.

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 Acidity tests

 Provide Steel casing

 Increase pile wall thickness

 Soak timber pile in creosote

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 More studies should be performed so that
designers have better guidelines.

 If a shallow foundation is chosen, factors such

as total and differential settlement need to be
taken into account. Further, in most shallow
foundations, site improvements should be
made.

 In deep foundations, lateral resistance,

corrosion should be accounted for.

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 Considerations When Building on
Landfills
Prepared by: Tom MacDougall

 April5, 1999
Brigham Young University
Provo, UT

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Thank you

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