A mechanical approach for fibre-reinforced clay in landfill caps cover application

Solid waste landfills come with a cover barrier which includes a compacted clay liner essential to safety on site. However this barrier encounters numerous problems, in particular those related to in situ implementation and to mechanical loading which may cause stress in the clay layer leading to the development of cracks. Tensile stress damage is replaced by shearing when the thickness of the cap cover increases. Thus to characterise the behaviour of the clay, compression tests tinder confinement were carried out in the laboratory. It was proposed to improve the mechanical performance of the clay layer by adding fibre-reinforcement. This relatively new technique is adopted in geotechnical projects involving stabilization of soil veneers. An analysis of different types of fibre-reinforcement of clay was carried out. An improvement in soil resistance and in the brittleness index of fibre-reinforced soil was characterised.