Landfill Clay Barrier: Fibre Reinforcement Technique

Abstract

Landfills come with a cover barrier which includes a compacted silty clay liner essential to safety on site. However this barrier encounters problems, especially those related to the differential settlement, which may cause stress in the clay layer leading to the development of cracks. Generally speaking, tensile stress damage and shearing are observed on the cap cover. Due to the weak mechanical performance of the clay layer it was proposed to add polypropylene fibre reinforcement. Direct tensile tests and compression tests under low confinement were carried out on unreinforced and reinforced soils. An improvement in soil resistance and in the brittleness index of fibre-reinforced clay was characterised. The proposed solution, technically feasible, enabled an optimization of the thickness of the mineral barrier.