A shear hardening plasticity model with nonlinear shear strength criterion for municipal solid waste

A shear hardening plasticity model with nonlinear strength criterion and appropriate stress-dilatancy description is presented to numerically study the bearing behavior of landfills. Simulations of drained triaxial tests are performed to illustrate the capability of the model in capturing the mechanical behavior of municipal solid waste. The bearing response and failure mode of a landfill foundation are determined using 2D and 3D finite element simulations. In contrast to the general shear failure mode obtained from rigid plasticity, the failure obtained from the hardening model shows a local mode, and prior to failure, a larger reaction force is produced for the same settlement.