Pseudo-static analysis for evaluation of earthquake stability of landfills

Based on the concept of the equivalent seismic coefficient on the potential sliding surface of soil-rock dams, the horizontal landfills equivalent accelerations (time-history) ahec(t) and ahed(t) are defined for the top covers and base linings. The maximum horizontal equivalent accelerations ahecmand ahedm, which are regarded as the loading levels induced by earthquakes, are compared with the yield accelerations of covers and linings respectively to evaluate the seismic stability of landfills. Supposing that the potential sliding mass above the landfill base linings is composed of three rigid blocks, a formula to estimate the yield acceleration of base linings of landfills approximately is derived based on the limit equilibrium analysis. By combining the equivalent linearization method with the pseudo-static analysis, the process of pseudo-static analysis to evaluate the earthquake stability of 2D landfills is given. Nonlinear numerical calculation of the landfill models used in table tests indicates that the conservative results can be given by the proposed pseudo-static analysis method.