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In-situ shearing response and shear strength of various solid

waste ground focused on fibrous materials composition

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© 2015 Taylor & Francis Group, London, ISBN 978-1-138-02707-7

In-situ shearing response and shear strength of various solid waste ground
focused on fibrous materials composition

S. Miyamoto, N. Yasufuku & R. Ishikura

Department of Civil Engineering, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

K. Omine
Department of Civil Engineering, Nagasaki University, Nagasaki, Japan

S. Kawai
Research Institute for East Asia Environments, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan

A. Yamawaki
Industrial Waste Management Enterprise Development Foundation, Tokyo, Japan

ABSTRACT: Slope instabilities have occurred in several improper landfills and illegal dumping sites. To
investigate the shearing response of solid waste materials, it is important to consider in the stability of dumping
site and landfill design. In this study, the shearing responses and shear strengths were investigated by newly
developed direct shear test apparatus on four waste grounds that consist of different composition ratios of waste
materials. The in-situ experimental results indicated that the shearing responses of waste materials were affected
by the existence of fibrous materials. In addition, it could be seen that the shearing responses and shear strengths
of various waste materials could be evaluated by focusing on fibrous materials composition. It was noticeably
found that the strength characteristics of waste materials was controlled by cohesive rather than internal friction
with increasing more than 15% of fibrous materials.

1 INTRODUCTION Zekkos et al. 2010). Furthermore, it is assumed that

Improper landfills and illegal dumping sites have
increased in recent years due to decreasing of final
disposal sites. Instabilities of artificial landfill slopes
which mainly consist of solid waste materials have
occurred in several sites, including the Payatas land-
fill in Philippines (Jafari & Stark 2010), Java landfill
site in Indonesia (Koelsch et al. 2005), Gnojna Grora
landfill in Poland (Bouzza & Wojnarowicz 2000),
Istanbul landfill in Turkey (Koerner & Soong 2000),
and Dona Junna landfill in Colombia (Hendron et al.
1999). These situations have caused significant eco-
nomic consequence and in some cases resulted in loss
of human lives. Evaluation of waste materials is impor-
tant not only in chemical system but also in mechanical
system considered in waste management. Especially,
clarification of shearing response and shear strength of
waste materials is strongly required to understand the
failure mechanism and to evaluate the static stabilities
of various waste grounds.
In previous studies concerning mechanical proper-
ties of waste materials, laboratory tests were mainly
performed using limited types of waste materials
collected from landfill site which ignored the in-
situ mechanical properties (Towhata et al. 2007,
Zhan et al. 2008, Koelsch 2009, Bray et al. 2009,
the structure of waste ground is essentially varied from
each site because of its consisting of different compo-
sition ratio of waste materials. Accordingly, in order
to provide insight regarding the real mechanical prop-
erties of waste materials, in-situ mechanical tests for
various waste grounds are consistently needed. Clar-
ification of the in-situ mechanical properties focused
on composition ratios of waste materials is important
to establish an evaluation method of various waste
grounds.
In this study, in-situ direct shear test apparatus
was newly developed for solid waste materials. In-situ
tests were conducted on four solid waste grounds that
consist of different composition ratios of waste mate-
rials. Accordingly, the relationships between in-situ
shearing responses and composition ratios of waste
materials were clarified, and the strength characteris-
tics of various waste grounds were discussed paying
attention to content rate of fibrous materials.
2 DEVELOPED DIRECT SHEAR TEST
APPARATUS AND TEST PROCEDURE
With the aim of measuring in-situ shearing responses
of waste materials, a direct shear test apparatus was

1357
Figure 1. The developed in-situ direct shear test apparatus and the situation of this test.
Figure 2. Series of preparation procedure of undisturbed specimen for in-situ direct shear test.
newly developed as shown in figure 1. This test appa-
ratus was designed primarily to setup in-situ, and it
operates manually. The shear displacement rate can be
controlled manually by using dial gage and hydraulic
jack. Normal stress is applied by actual weight, which
becomes ten times using principle of leverage by load
lever (i.e., 1:10 ratios). The reaction forces gener-
ated due to loading actions can be carried via six
screw anchored piles which have 220 mm length and
diameter of 50 mm.
The preparation procedures of manufacturing
undisturbed specimen are illustrated in figure 2. The
specimen frame, which has same size as shear box, is
located on the test space. Approximately 2 m ranges
with depth of 15cm surrounding specimen frame are
excavated to make the space for in-situ direct shear
test as shown in figure 2(a). After get rid of excavated
waste, outline of specimen is manufactured carefully
by using grinding machine which can cut the protruded
waste materials. The condition of completed specimen
in the frame is shown in figure 2(b). The shear box is
placed on specimen after pull out the frame. The load-
ing frame and anchoring piles are attached to shear
box as shown in figure 2(c).
Series of in-situ direct shear tests comprised of ini-
tial compression process and then shearing process. In
compression process, specimen is loaded under a cer-
tain normal stress either until the vertical displacement
becomes constant with time, or until period of ten min-
utes. In shearing process, the upper half of the shear
box is displaced horizontally up to 40 mm under con-
stant normal stress. In this study, the displacement rate
was selected nominally to be 1 mm/min. In the series
1358
of direct shear test, the vertical displacement of spec-
imen top cap, the shear displacement of upper shear
box and the shear force are recorded using a digital
data acquisition system.
3 BASIC PROPERTY OF WASTE GROUND
Table 1 summarizes the general view, composition
ratios, dry density and water content of the four waste
ground sites investigated in this study. Site A and B
are illegal dumping sites in Japan where they were
made by throwing away the waste materials over per-
mission capacity in intermediate treatment facilities.
As steep slopes were made compulsorily, the situa-
tions in which slope instabilities are concerned. Site
C and D are located in Laogang landfill in China.
These test sites were selected with different compo-
sition ratios of waste materials in this landfill. In all
sites, the test places for in-situ tests were made by
excavation in depth of 2 m from surface due to investi-
gate the old layer which passed at adequate times from
abandonment.
The composition ratios of waste materials describe
the waste type and content rate in each site. In this
study, the classification of waste materials are fibrous
materials (mainly plastics), gravel with pottery, metal,
wood, geo-materials finer 5 mm and others. The classi-
fication was determined by referring to previous stud-
ies and observing the real situations in the fields. The
amount of 5 kg waste materials were classified three
times in each site, then average value was estimated to
content rate of each material. The categorized results
Table 1. Scheme of waste ground investigated in this study (general view, composition ratio, wet density and water content).
Figure 3. Dry density and content rate of fibrous materials
relationship from the results of in-situ density test.
shows that gravel with pottery and geo-materials finer
5 mm are most content in weight. It becomes also clear
that content rate of fibrous materials is most different
in each site. Especially, the apparent volume of fibrous
materials was significantly different, because the rel-
ative weight of fibrous materials is much lower than
that of gravel and geo-materials finer 5 mm.
In-situ dry densities and water contents were exam-
ined by water replacement method for in-situ density
test (IGS1612-2003 ), which can be applied for mate-
rials containing generally over 150 mm particle size.
To contain the various shaped materials in the waste
ground, this method was adopted. In comparison with
general soil, the dry densities of waste materials indi-
cate small values in all cases due to presence of
high amount of low specific gravity materials such
as fibrous materials.
The relationship between dry densities and content
rate of fibrous materials for all case studies are shown
in figure 3. It is apparent that the dry density decrease
linearly with increasing content rate of fibrous materi-
als. It is also difficult to mention that this tendency
is provided by only influence on fibrous materials,
because various materials, which have different sizes,
shapes and weight, are consisted in waste ground.
1359
However, it is important finding in engineering prac-
tice that dry densities of various waste materials can
be evaluated precisely paying attention to content rate
of fibrous materials.
4 IN-SITU SHEARING RESPONSES
The shearing responses of undisturbed waste materi-
als in all tested sites are summarized in figure 4. This
figure depicts the relationships between shear stress
and shear displacement, and the relationships between
vertical displacement and shear displacement in each
site. From the shear stress and shear displacement rela-
tionships of all case studies, it is clear that the increase
tendency of shear stresses appears with linear harden-
ing, but there are no clear distinct peak strengths for
all. These behaviors provide evidence to say that the
reinforcement effects are demonstrated by the exis-
tence of fibrous materials which in turn stretch with
increasing shear deformation. The effect of differences
in composition ratios of waste materials did not appear
in this relationship distinctly. In terms of vertical dis-
placement and shear displacement relationships, it is
obvious that the differences in composition ratios of
waste materials affect the deformation properties at
shearing. The deformation property of site A, which
has the lowest content rate of fibrous materials (5%),
experiences obvious contraction behavior, On con-
trary, the other waste materials, which contain higher
contents of fibrous materials, reveal expansion behav-
ior. In addition, these tendencies become clear with
increasing normal stress. To increase the fibrous mate-
rials intersected shearing surface, stretched fibrous
materials hold other materials up, and expansion prop-
erty expresses significant appearance. For the present,
to consider the dilatancy property of waste materi-
als in detail, the relationships between stress ratio
( τ / σ ) and deformation ratio ( - dh / dδ ) are sum-
marized in figure 5. As an illustrative example, the
results of both site A and B are described in this fig-
ure. At small stress ratio ranges, the deformation ratio
of waste materials which have low content of fibrous
Figure 4. In-situ shearing response of waste materials, all sites.

Figure 5. The dilatancy characteristics of waste materials, A and B sites as examples.

materials increase gradually, while the waste mate-
rials which consist of high content rate of fibrous
materials decrease with increasing stress ratio. On
the other hand, at large stress ranges, deformation
ratio indicates a constant value irrespective of content
rate of fibrous materials. This behavior implies that
shearing response depends mainly on the amount of
fibrous materials content at small deformation ranges,
however elasticity property becomes prominent at
large deformation ranges regardless of the amount of
fibrous materials content due to stretching of fibrous
materials with increasing shear displacement. From
above results, it is clearly found that the shearing
responses of waste materials exhibit the ductility
and elasticity characteristics depending on stretching
deformation of fibrous materials during shearing.

1360
Figure 6. Mobilized secant angle and shear displacement
relationship, all sites, maximum normal stress.
Figure 7. Shear strength and normal stress relationship, all
5 IN-SITU SHEAR STRENGTHS sites.

5.1 Definition of shear strength Table 2. In-situ shear strengths of waste materials in all
sites.
It was confirmed that the distinct peak strengths of
waste materials do not appear within shearing defor- Normal stress, Shear strength, Cohesion, Friction
mation. However, the relationship between mobilized σ τf c Angle,
secant angle and shear displacement are shown in (kN/m2 ) (kN/m2 ) (kN/m2 ) φ (◦ )
figure 6, which were obtained from in-situ shearing
responses at maximum normal stress conditions in Site A 8.2 14.5 3.9 50.6
each site as shown in figure 4. This indicates that 13.6 19.0
incline of mobilized secant angle decrease over shear 19.1 27.8
displacement of approximately 20 mm. It seems right Site B 8.2 11.8 2.9 46.2
to presume from this behavior that larger plastic defor- 13.6 16.4
19.1 23.2
mation generates, and the shear stress demonstrates the Site C 7.5 10.5 3.5 42.5
almost yield strength more than shear displacement 13.6 15.7
at 20 mm. In this study, shear strength is defined in 19.1 21.1
this direct shear test as the mobilized shear stress at a Site D 7.5 10.7 6.0 32.6
shear displacement of 35 mm, which is the maximum 16.9 17.0
displacement measured accurately by this apparatus, 22.3 20.2
unless peak shear stress conditions reached at smaller
shear displacement.

5.2 Shear strengths focusing on fibrous materials

The relationships between shear strength and normal
stress in all sites are shown in figure 7. These rela-
tionships can be illustrated proportionality, and then it
is clearly found that cohesion and friction parameters
in shear strength of waste materials can be evaluated
by Coulomb failure criteria. Accordingly the results of
in-situ direct shear tests in each site are summarized
in Table 2.
The relationship between shear strength and compo-
sition ratios of waste materials is considered in detail to
evaluate clearly the influence of shear strength param-
eters for various waste materials. In this study, fibrous
materials, which revealed significant influence on the Figure 8. Cohesion and content rate of fibrous materials
shearing response of waste materials, are the chief con- relationship, results of all sites.
cern. Figures 8 and 9 show the relationships between
cohesion and friction angle versus the content rate cohesion increases, while friction angle decreases with
of fibrous materials, respectively. Both of cohesion increasing fibrous materials content. These behaviors
and friction angle of waste materials indicate constant make it clear that cohesive of waste materials become
value at fibrous materials content of approximately being control the shearing behavior over than the fric-
15%. However, at higher ranges of more than 15%, tional angle with increasing content rate of fibrous

1361

Figure 9. Friction angle and content rate of fibrous materials
relationship, results of all sites.
materials. Especially, at fibrous materials content of
approximately beyond 15% is considered as boundary
value of characteristic change in this study. Accord-
ingly from the above finding, it is suggested that
the shearing responses and shear strengths of vari-
ous waste materials can be evaluated adequately by
focusing on content rate of fibrous materials.
6 CONCLUSIONS
The main conclusions of in this study are summarized
as follows:
1) Four waste grounds were investigated in this study
containing gravel and geo-materials finer 5 mm in
weight. It was also clear that the content rate of
fibrous materials was most different in each site.
2) From the relationship of between the geotechni-
cal physical properties and composition ratios of
waste materials, it became apparent that the val-
ues of dry density could be evaluated unmistakably
paying attention to content rate of fibrous materials.
3) From the results of shearing responses using in-situ
direct shear test conducted on four waste grounds,
it was obvious that an increase tendency of shear
stress appeared with linear hardening, and clear dis-
tinct peak strengths did not appear in all cases due to
mobilization of the reinforcement effect in fibrous
materials. In terms of deformation property, it was
obvious that expansion property became prominent
depending on increase of content rate of fibrous
materials.
4) It became clear from the results of in-situ direct
shear test that shear strength could be evaluated
as cohesion and friction parameters by Coulomb
failure criteria.
5) From consideration of the relationships between
shear strengths and content rate of fibrous materi-
als, it was noticeably found that the shear strength of
waste materials was controlled by cohesive rather
than internal friction with increasing content rate
of fibrous materials. Since it was observed that
at nearly 15% of fibrous materials content was
considered boundary value of changing strength
characteristics in this study.
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6) It could be seen that the shearing responses and
shear strengths of various waste materials could
be evaluated adequately by focusing on fibrous
materials composition.
This study was conducted by focusing on shear
properties of waste materials. However, it was already
found that the slope stability is underestimated by cal-
culating cohesion and internal friction angle. Accord-
ingly, in the further study of evaluation of influence of
fibrous materials on mechanical properties is needed
to be investigated in detail. The findings would not
only contribute to research of the stability of waste
ground but also to the development of landfill design.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
This study was carried out as part of “Environment
Research and Technology Development Fund of Min-
istry of the Environment, Japan” and “Grant-in-Aid
for JSPS Fellows”, and the authors are grateful for
their support for this study. The authors would like
also to thank Prof. Hazarika and Mr. Nakashima of
Kyushu University, for them assistance of progressing
this study and of developing test apparatus.
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