Equivalent-linear seismic analyses of MSW landfills using DEEPSOIL

Responses of municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills during earthquakes are gaining worldwide importance due to the devastating nature of earthquake on landfills. Apart from the post-earthquake safety and serviceability issues which pose environmental and public health problems, other important concerns are related to the behavior of closed landfills during and after earthquake. In present study, one dimensional (1-D) equivalent-linear analysis was carried out to model the behaviour of MSW landfills subjected to seismic base accelerations using the DEEPSOIL software. Influence of foundation types, height and stiffness of MSW landfills and seismic base accelerations on the seismic responses in terms of surface accelerations, normalized stresses (i.e., shear stress/effective vertical stress) and spectral amplification are evaluated. The results showed that height and stiffness of landfills, type of foundation and amount of seismic base acceleration and period play important role in evaluating the seismic responses of MSW landfills. Assumption of constant unit weight and shear wave velocity for landfills underestimates maximum horizontal acceleration (MHA), normalized shear stresses and spectral amplification at the top of landfills. Landfill models with smaller heights (up to 40 m high) showed higher amplification ratio for low seismic base accelerations with mean period near to that of soil and landfill resonance for all sites. A complex behavior was observed at higher seismic base accelerations due to non-linear behavior of landfill materials.