Unsaturated flow parameters of municipal solid waste

•This paper reviews the recent studies of unsaturated properties of MSW.•The effects of porosity, waste composition and particle size are investigated.•A series of estimation methods were proposed to define above effects.•The result is of great value in predicting unsaturated flow parameters of MSW.

Leachate pollution/recirculation and landfill gas emission are the major environmental concerns in municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills. A good understanding and prediction of MSW unsaturated properties are critical for the design of piping systems and the control of these problems within landfills. This paper reviews the recent studies of unsaturated properties of MSW, including experimental methods, theoretical models and corresponding model parameters. For experimental methods, the sample size is a common and significant limitation and large test apparatuses (e.g., >80 cm in diameter) are generally required and valuable. The theoretical models for MSW also have some limitations due to the changes in waste composition and particle size distribution caused by biodegradation. Thus, the available data of intrinsic permeabilities, water retention curves, relative permeabilities and anisotropy of MSW were summarized to investigate the influences of porosity, waste composition and particle size distribution. A series of estimation methods were subsequently proposed to determine the parameters of water retention curve like θLm, θLr, nv and α. The other parameters such as the pore connectivity term (l) and the degree of anisotropy (k) were significantly lacking data, thus only their relationships with porosity were proposed. The results show that it is possible to define the second order effects caused by variations in porosity, waste composition and particle size distribution. However, the estimation methods still need more experimental data for improvement, especially their dependence on waste composition and particle size distribution.