Design Considerations for a Novel Landfill Liner

Abstract

A novel landfill leachate liner design consisting of a series of vshaped contiguous elements constructed from an impervious membrane, a boxed soil layer saturated with clean water, and a gravel layer is proposed. Certain idealized boundary conditions are stipulated and an analytical solution is given for the diffusional mass transport of leachate through the saturated layer. This is used to assess the maximum value and time‐of‐occurrence of leachate concentration at the impervious membrane. It is shown that these two important quantities are sensitive to the diffusion coefficient and the thickness of the saturated layer. A method is formulated for the estimation of the diffusion coefficient, accounting for the type of contaminant, the effect of the porous medium, and the possibility of contaminant adsorption on the soil matrix. The overall procedure would be valuable in estimating the potential of destruction of the impervious membrane from the chemicals contained in the leachate.