Shear strength properties of municipal solid waste

摘要

In this paper, some results of triaxial compression tests performed on samples of Municipal Solid Waste (MSW) are presented and discussed. The waste studied was collected in the Bandeirantes Sanitary Landfill (Sao Paulo-Brazil) and is about 15 years old. Drained triaxial compression tests were performed in reconstituted waste samples of large dimensions (150 mm and 200 mm in diameter), tested at their natural water content and saturated. Typical stress-strain curves are presented and some features are shown, as the absence of failure even at large strains, up to 30%, what implies the need of deriving shear strength envelopes based on strain. The influence of saturation and of unit weight on shear strength is also addressed as well as the mobilization of cohesion and friction angle that follow different patterns according to deformation.