Laboratory Investigation of Hydraulic Conductivity of Fresh and Degraded Municipal Solid Waste

This paper presents a laboratory investigation of the hydraulic conductivity of municipal solid waste (MSW). A series of laboratory tests were conducted on fresh and aged samples in a large-scale rigid wall permeameter. The unit weight of samples varied in the range of 7.24–9.81 kN/m3. The hydraulic conductivity varied in a narrow range of 9.70 × 10–2 to 1.45 × 10–3. The study showed a decrease in hydraulic conductivity as the unit weight and age of the sample increased. However, there was no unique relation observed between hydraulic conductivity and unit weight. The age of the sample was observed to be a controlling factor in hydraulic conductivity because of degradation. The results demonstrated that hydraulic conductivity is a function of void spaces present in the sample and independent of degradation and unit weight. An exponential decay function expresses the decreasing hydraulic conductivity with the decrease in void ratio.