13 th World Conference on Earthquake Engineering Vancouver, B.C., Canada August 1-6, 2004 Paper No. 2702 SEISMIC BEHAVIOUR OF MUNICIPAL SOLID WASTE (MSW) LANDFILLS Indrasenan THUSYANTHAN 1 , Gopal MADABHUSHI 2 , Sukhmander SINGH 3 and Stuart HAIGH 4 , Andrew BRENNAN 5 SUMMARY A pioneering study into the seismic behaviour of municipal solid waste (MSW) landfill has been carried out by dynamic centrifuge testing. The study investigates the amplification characteristics of a MSW landfill. This paper presents experimental results from dynamic centrifuge testing of a MSW landfill model and compares the experimental results with one-dimensional numerical predictions. The landfill modelled was a single clay liner MSW landfill with 1H:1V side slope founded on a sand foundation. The MSW was modelled by mechanically representative model waste and the clay liner by a strip of normally consolidated E-grade kaolin clay. The accelerations experienced by the clay liner, the top surface of sand and the model waste, when the foundation soil was subjected to seven model earthquakes of varying frequency and intensity, were recorded and have been analysed in this paper. Results from this study provide valuable experimental results to show that a simplified site response chart can be used to obtain the amplification of accelerations through MSW landfills. INTRODUCTION Every year, countries all over the world deal with the disposal of millions of tons of MSW. MSW consists of house-hold waste and some industrial waste. The most common and one of the cheapest solutions for disposal of MSW has been a landfill. The United States generates over 230 million tons of MSW every year and about 130 million tons of it is landfilled. Japan produces nearly 50 million tons of MSW every year of which around 15 million tons of waste is landfilled. Both Japan and the United states have thousands of landfills located in seismic regions. Therefore, it is important to understand the behaviour of MSW landfills under earthquake loading as earthquake loading can induce landfill failures and lead to ground water contamination or other geo-environmental disasters. The Federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA 1993)[1] of the United States Environment Protection Agency was one of the first regulatory legislations that has addressed the concern of seismic loading on MSW landfills. RCRA states 1 Research student, Schofield Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0EL, UK. 2 Senior Lecturer, Department of Engineering, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 1PZ,UK. 3 Nicholson Family Professor of Civil Engineering, Santa Clara University, CA95053, USA. 4 Research Associate, Schofield Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0EL, UK. 5 Research Fellow, Schofield Centre, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB3 0EL, UK.