Innovative Expansion of Landfill Capacity Using Geogrid Reinforcements

An analytical investigation was conducted to evaluate the geotechnical safety and
stability of MSW landfills constructed with significantly steepened slopes achieved
through geosynthetic reinforcement. The primary motivation for this endeavor was to
propose a new design/construction methodology for innovative expansion of landfill
capacity. A 2-D plane strain linear elastic analysis was performed with ANSYS finite
element software on full-scale MSW landfill structures (with and without geogrids),
having slopes of 1:1, 1:2, and 1:3. Both local and global factors of safety were
determined employing the Mohr-Coulomb failure criteria, and compared with traditional
solutions using the Bishop's Modified Method. It was found that the landfill slopes could
be steepened up to 1:1 using geogrid reinforcement, resulting in higher storage capacity
and consequential environmental and economic benefits.