Constitutive Model for Municipal Solid Waste

unicipal solid waste (MSW) is a refuse composed of various materials with different properties. Some of the components are stable while others degrade as a result of biological and chemical processes. These aspects impart to MSW a complex behavior that has been modeled, with many limitations, within the concepts of soil mechanics. In this paper, a framework to model the MSW mechanical behavior is proposed based on results from laboratory tests, such as triaxial compression and confined compression of large samples. It is suggested that two different effects command MSW mechanical behavior: (a) the reinforcement of MSW by synthetic fibers (composed by many types of polymers) and (b) the behavior of the MSW paste, without fibers. Accordingly, two distinct frameworks were used to represent the main MSW characteristics: (a) a critical state framework for MSW paste and (b) an elastic perfectly plastic framework for waste fibers, with a time lag for fiber loading (function fm). The proposed model is capable of reproducing quite well the results obtained from triaxial and confined compression tests performed in the laboratory as well as the settlement recorded in a sanitary landfill.