Experimental research on dynamic properties of municipal solid waste

To investigate the dynamic properties of municipal solid waste (MSW) in the range of large strain, dynamic triaxial tests were conducted using moderate-scale triaxial apparatus on MSW samples simulating the compositions of MSW from Hangzhou Tianziling Landfill. It is concluded that the relationships of dynamic shear modulus and damping ratio versus dynamic shear strain of MSW are similar to those of peaty soil. The dynamic shear modulus increases and damping ratio decreases as the confining pressure increases under the same dynamic shear strain level, but the dynamic shear modulus decreases and damping ratio increases as the dynamic shear strain increases under the same confining pressure. Because of the high compressible property of MSW, the influence of initial void ratio is very little. At the same time, a formula for evaluating the maximum dynamic shear modulus is proposed on the basis of experimental results of shear wave velocity. The ranges of variation and average curves of the normalized dynamic shear modulus and damping ratio versus dynamic shear strain are proposed, which are compared with those of OII landfill. It is found that the composition of MSW affects significantly its dynamic properties.