CONSTRUCTION MATERIALS RESEARCH PROJECTS AT COVENTRY UNIVERSITY

LANDFILL BARRIERS     Back to home page

Full Title:  Novel composite landfill liners.

Academic staff: Dr P A Claisse

Academic/Research Staff:  Esmail Ganjian

Funding to CU:  £297k over 5 years from ENTRUST (landfill tax) and industry

Research Partners:  Professor Alan Atkinson and Dr Mark Tyrer at Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, MIRO - Mineral Industry Research Organisation , PSD Associates.

Links

Summary report at Sept 02,  Final Safety Case Aug 04

Barrier model.xlsm  This is the programme that was used for the analysis.  It is attached to show an example of the type of code used.

Each year in the UK about 250 hectares of landfill barrier are constructed.  These barriers are needed below the waste to prevent leachate from it from causing pollution.  They are normally constructed with clay (often imported bentonite) and a thick plastic membrane.  This system is expensive and there is concern about its long term performance.  This research project developed barriers which are made of layers of concrete and clay.  The system is economic because a relatively low strength concrete is needed to prevent large cracks forming, and concrete of this type can be made out of waste minerals, which would otherwise have to go inside the landfills. 

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This picture shows the author (right) with personnel from Hanson Pioneer concrete.  We were inspecting the concrete placement for test cell 1.

The concrete was mixed by Hanson Pioneer using almost entirely waste minerals.

This picture shows the concrete which has been placed in the lower layer of the trial cell