This study presents a numerical method for calculating gas flow around a sanitary landfill gas vent, when gas flows by pressure. The method described is a three-dimensional compartmental model and includes methods to determine the dimensions for the model. Using the numerical method, the following results are obtained.
1) In the case of gas generation rate (
G [s
-1] ) × depth of refuse layer (
Lz [m] ) ≤leakage gas flux through final cover soil,
qc obtained from Eq. (9), a landfill-gas vent such as that studied in this paper is ineffective.
2) It is pointed out that the landfill-gas vent should be designed by fitting both the landfill gas collection efficiency (η) and the maximum pressure under final cover soil (Δ
Pmax) .
3) Non-dimensional differential pressure Δ
Pmax, which is defined as Δ
Pmax/Δ
P, and η can be mainly estimated using two parameters (
Ks/
Kx,
Lx/
Lz), where
Lx=half of distance between two vents,
Kx=horizontal permeability of refuse layer,
Kz=vertical permeability of refuse layer, and
Ks=permeability of final cover soil, Δ
P=μ
G (
Lz)
2/
Kx, μ=viscosity [Pa·s] .
4) η and Δ
Pmaxare not influenced by the intermediate soil layers and horizontal daily cover soil layers.
5) Vertical daily cover soil layers strongly influence η and Δ
Pmax. Therefore soil with high permeability should be used for daily cover soil.
6) When a gas vent is used for collection of both leachate and gas, both 1-η and Δ
Pmaxdecrease by 80% compared with the case that the gas vent used only for gas collection.
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