Performance-based Design for Geosynthetic Liner Systems in Landfills

Abstract

Municipal solid waste landfill is a new type of geotechnical structures occurring with the urbanization development, the functions of which are to contain municipal solid waste and protect natural environment. The geosynthetic liner system consisting of geomembrane and geosynthetic clay liner is widely used to separate the waste and the associated leachate in landfills from the surrounding environment. This paper addresses some issues for the geosynthetic liner system based on its performances, including: (1) breakthrough time, the contaminants cannot transport through the geosynthetic liner system during the service life; (2) sliding failure along the geosynthetic liner system interfaces; (3) tensile failure in the geosynthetic liner system resulting from the waste deformations. These issues are investigated and their associated design criteria are discussed based on theoretical analysis and experimental results, which would be useful for the state-of-the-practice designs of landfills.