Parameter determination of a compression model for landfilled municipal solid waste: An experimental study

The methods to determine the parameters of a one-dimensional compression model for landfilled municipal solid waste were investigated. In order to test the methods for parameter determination, long-term laboratory compression experiments were carried out under different surcharge loads (i.e. 100, 200 and 400 kPa). Based on the measured compression strain and the reported creep index, the modified primary compression indexes, pre-consolidation pressure and ultimate biodegradation-induced secondary compression strain were determined using the proposed methods. It was found that the simulated compression could not capture the measured secondary compression behavior when using a constant value of biodegradation-induced compression rate coefficient. The variation of the rate coefficient with the change of decomposition rate should be considered during modeling. Accordingly, the biodegradation-induced secondary compression strain in the compression model should be expressed in an incremental form in order to consider the variation of the rate coefficient.