Modelling the water diversion of a sustainable cover system under humid climates

Extreme rainfall significantly threatens the safety of the landfill cover system,especially under humid climates.This study aims to provide design recommendations for a sustainable landfill cover system consisting of a low-permeability soil layer underlying a two-layer capillary barrier for humid climates.First,the numerical back-analysis was conducted for verification against a series of flume model tests.Then,a parametric study was performed to investigate the effects of inclination angle,particle size and layer thickness on the lateral diversion length(DL)of the three-layer cover system under the 100-year return period rainfall of humid climates.The results show that the water lateral DL of the cover system can be greatly enhanced by increasing the inclination angle from 3°to 18°.Moreover,the bottom layer of the cover system with a coarser d10 was more susceptible to the impact of the heavy rainfall,while this can be alleviated by increasing the thickness of the bottom layer.A dimensionless number,defined as the ratio of thickness and d_(10) of the bottom layer,is proposed for designing lateral diversion of the three-layer cover system under humid climates.To preserve the maximum DL,it is suggested that the proposed dimensionless number should be larger than 95 and 110 for the design of rainfall events with 50-year and 100-year return periods for humid climates,respectively.

Three-year field study on grass growth and soil hydrological properties in biochar-amended soil

Field monitoring was conducted to investigate and quantify the long-term effects of peanut shell biochar on soil-grass interaction over three years.Three 10 m5 m grassed plots were constructed in completely decomposed granitic soil.Two of them were amended,respectively,with 5%and 10%biochar contents(m^(3)/m^(3))for grass growth,while the third was without biochar amendment.During the threeyear monitoring,plant characteristics,saturated water permeability(k_(s))of grassed soil and soil suction were measured.The monitored results show that the grass leaf area index(LAI)and root length density(RLD)with biochar amendment were improved by 38%and 200%,respectively.In the grassed plot without biochar,a threshold RLD existed with a value of 1.7 cm/cm^(3),beyond which k_(s) raised pronouncedly.The threshold RLD increased by 52%when biochar content increased from 0%to 10%.This implies that biochar may restrict the increase in k_(s) of grassed soil due to the rise in the threshold RLD.The presence of biochar and grass can retain over 100%higher suction after heavy rainfalls,while 54%lower peak suction under evapotranspiration(ET)compared with the non-amended plot.Biochar can alleviate the negative effects on hydraulic properties caused by plant growth and reduce ET-induced excessive water loss.A 5%peanut shell biochar content is recommended for the long-term management of vegetated earthen infrastructures.

Three-dimensional numerical analysis of plant-soil hydraulic interactions on pore water pressure of vegetated slope under different rainfall patterns

Understanding the pore water pressure distribution in unsaturated soil is crucial in predicting shallow landslides triggered by rainfall,mainly when dealing with different temporal patterns of rainfall intensity.However,the hydrological response of vegetated slopes,especially three-dimensional(3D)slopes covered with shrubs,under different rainfall patterns remains unclear and requires further investigation.To address this issue,this study adopts a novel 3D numerical model for simulating hydraulic interactions between the root system of the shrub and the surrounding soil.Three series of numerical parametric studies are conducted to investigate the influences of slope inclination,rainfall pattern and rainfall duration.Four rainfall patterns(advanced,bimodal,delayed,and uniform)and two rainfall durations(4-h intense and 168-h mild rainfall)are considered to study the hydrological response of the slope.The computed results show that 17%higher transpiration-induced suction is found for a steeper slope,which remains even after a short,intense rainfall with a 100-year return period.The extreme rainfalls with advanced(PA),bimodal(PB)and uniform(PU)rainfall patterns need to be considered for the short rainfall duration(4 h),while the delayed(PD)and uniform(PU)rainfall patterns are highly recommended for long rainfall durations(168 h).The presence of plants can improve slope stability markedly under extreme rainfall with a short duration(4 h).For the long duration(168 h),the benefit of the plant in preserving pore-water pressure(PWP)and slope stability may not be sufficient.

Analysis of a landfill cover without geomembrane using varied particle sizes of recycled concrete

Previous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of a novel three-layer landfill cover system constructed with recycled concrete aggregates(RCAs)without geomembrane in both laboratory and field.However,no systematic investigation has been carried out to optimize the combination of the particle sizes for fine-grained RCAs(FRC)and coarse-grained RCAs(CRC)that can be used for the three-layer landfill cover system.The aim of this paper is to assist engineers in designing the three-layer landfill cover system under a rainfall of 100-year return period in humid climate conditions using an easily controlled soil parameter D10 of RCAs.The numerical study reveals that when D10 of FRC increases from 0.05 mm to 0.16 mm,its saturated permeability increases by 10 times.As a result,a larger amount of rainwater infiltrates into the cover system,causing a higher lateral diversion in both the top FRC and middle CRC layers.No further changes in the lateral diversion are observed when the D10 value of FRC is larger than 0.16 mm.Both the particle sizes of FRC and CRC layers are shown to have a minor influence on the percolation under the extreme rainfall event.This implies that the selection of particle sizes for the FRC and CRC layers can be based on the availability of materials.Although it is well known that the bottom layer of the cover system should be constructed with very fine-grained soils if possible,this study provides an upper limit to the particle size that can be used in the bottom layer(D10 not larger than 0.02 mm).With this limit,the three-layer system can still minimize the water percolation to meet the design criterion(30 mm/yr)even under a 100-year return period of rainfall in humid climates.

Gas permeability and emission in unsaturated vegetated landfill cover with biochar addition

Plant-biochar interaction has been recognized to affect the hydraulic properties of landfill cover soils,while its influence on landfill gas emission is rarely studied.This study investigated the coupled effects of biochar and vegetation on gas permeability and emission in unsaturated landfill cover through an integrated theoretical modelling and laboratory investigation.First,a gas permeability model was developed for vegetated coarse-grained soils with biochar addition.Then,a well-instrumented laboratory column test and two tests from the literature,considering bare,grass,biochar and grass+biochar conditions,were used for model validation.Finally,a numerical parametric study was conducted to investigate the influence of root growth and drought conditions on the gas emission rate.Results showed that the developed model can satisfactorily capture the gas permeability of unsaturated soils at various degrees of saturation.The lowest water retention capacity,the highest gas permeability and gas emission rate after 24 months of growth were observed in the grassed column.However,adding biochar in vegetated soils can maximize the water retention capacity and decrease the gas permeability,resulting in the lowest gas emission rate.The measured gas emission rates for the four cases meet the recommended value by the design guideline.The parametric study showed that the increased root depth from 0.2 m to 0.4 m improved the gas emission rate by 170%in the grass case but decreased by 97%in the grass+biochar case.Under the severe drought condition with soil suction around 500 kPa,the gas emission rate in the grassed case exceeded the design value by 18%,while those in the biochar cases were far below the allowable value.Therefore,peanut shell biochar should be considered to amend the grassed landfill cover using coarse-grained soils as it can significantly improve engineering performance in reducing gas emissions under extreme drought conditions.

Ta_(2)NiSe_(5) nanosheets as a novel broadband saturable absorber for solid-state pulse laser generation

Two-dimensional(2D)ternary chalcogenides have attracted great attentions because of their novel chemical and physical properties arising from the synergistic effect and stoichiometric variation with the additional third element compared with their binary counterparts.Here,high-quality 2D tantalum nickel selenide(Ta_(2)NiSe_(5))nanosheets are successfully fabricated by a liquid-phase exfoliation(LPE)method.The ultrafast excited carrier relaxation time and nonlinear optical absorption response are investigated and reveal that the prepared 2D Ta_(2)NiSe_(5)nanosheets have excellent broadband saturable absorption properties,which are further illustrated by three passively Q-switched(PQS)allsolid-state lasers operating at 1.0,2.0 and 2.8μm with the Ta_(2)NiSe_(5)nanosheet-based saturable absorber(SA).Furthermore,mode-locked laser operation with the pulse width as short as 356 fs is also realized at 1.0μm.This work not only demonstrates the excellent nonlinear optical proprieties and optical modulation performance of Ta_(2)NiSe_(5),but also paves the way for exploring the photonic and optoelectronic proprieties of ternary chalcogenide materials.