Modelling of long-term landfill behaviour

Conceptual modelling of municipal solid waste landfills is a challenging task for engineers and vital for long-term prognosis and monitoring concepts of such structures. Below, different models for the investigation of long-term landfill behaviour considering physical and biochemical processes are presented. Waste material in landfills is described as heterogeneous porous medium, where flow and transport processes of gases and liquids are combined with local material degradation and mechanical deformation. Conceptual considerations of chemical and biological reaction processes in landfill ecosystems are reflected in a structured degradation model. A multiphase flow and transport model for the numerical analysis of coupled transport and reaction processes in landfills and a constitutive model for the mechanical deformation behaviour of waste material are introduced.