Spatial variability characterization of clayey waste soils and its impact on probabilistic stability assessment of a landfill slope

• Published in: Acta geotechnica 2024-08, Vol.19 (8), p.5157-5174
• Main Authors: Wang, Shuairong, Xiao, Te, Li, Guangyao, Lv, Yunhong, Dai, Cong, Zhan, Liangtong, Chen, Yunmin, Zhang, Shuai
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Boreholes; Complex Fluids and Microfluidics; Conditional random fields; Construction industry wastes; Cross correlation; Engineering; Foundations; Geoengineering; Geotechnical Engineering & Applied Earth Sciences; Hydraulics; Landfill; Landfill construction; Landfills; Modelling; Research Paper; Safety management; Shear strength; Slope stability; Soft and Granular Matter; Soil analysis; Soil Science & Conservation; Soil strength; Soils; Solid Mechanics; Solid wastes; Spatial variations; Stability analysis; Statistical analysis; Urbanization; Variability; Waste disposal sites
• ISSN: 1861-1125; 1861-1133
• DOI: 10.1007/s11440-024-02244-9

Rapid urbanization has caused numerous construction solid waste landfills. Few studies have explored the impact of multi-source waste soils with remarkable spatial variability on the reliability of landfills. This study aims to characterize the site-specific spatial variability of stockpiled waste soils and perform a probabilistic stability assessment of a real-world landfill slope. An integrated probabilistic landfill analysis framework is developed, consisting of spatial variability characterization, random field modeling, and probabilistic slope stability analysis. Seventy-four groups of clayey waste soil parameters were obtained from a landfill in Hangzhou, China. The artificial mixing behavior makes the shear strengths of waste soils have high variability (coefficients of variation close to 0.5), a high positive cross-correlation (about 0.9), and bimodal marginal probability distributions. The spatial variabilities of the cohesion and friction angle of clayey waste soils are similar, with vertical and horizontal scales of fluctuation being 3.23 m and 34.32 m, respectively. The conditional random field modeling of clayey waste soils provides a more realistic slope stability assessment of the landfill and its impact on the failure probability highly relies on the strength and location of boreholes. More slope reinforcement measures should be adopted for safety management of the next stage of landfilling.