RESEARCH PAPER Seismic in-Soil Isolation of Solid Waste Landfill Using Geosynthetic Liners: Shaking Table Modeling of Tehran Landfill Vahid Mirhaji 1 • Yaser Jafarian 2 • Mohammad H. Baziar 3 • Mohammad K. Jafari 2 Received: 11 January 2017 / Revised: 15 May 2017 / Accepted: 3 June 2017 Ó Iran University of Science and Technology 2017 Abstract Seismic loads may damage municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills through the relative movements within the landfill system. These movements can disrupt performance of drainage and gas collection systems, thereby resulting in environmental pollution. The smooth synthetic materials might be placed beneath the structures to provide seismic protection by absorbing the imparted energy of earthquakes through the sliding mechanism. It has been found that a high strength geomembrane placed over the other smooth and lubricated geomembrane sheets constitutes an efficient seismic liner. In the present study, experimental investigations were conducted to evaluate role of in-soil base isolation on seismic response of the Tehran MSW landfill. Results of geophysical and geotechnical investigations in the landfill site are presented in detail. Shaking table tests were conducted on the MSW embankment isolated by semi-elliptic shaped liners and subjected to harmonic sinusoidal base excitations. The results for the isolated and non-isolated cases are compared in terms of permanent displacement and seismic response. It has been observed that at all elevations the spectral accelerations within the waste decreased by base isolation, especially for the more intense excitations. Results of the present study demonstrate a suitable application of geosynthetic liners for seismic retrofitting of landfills. Keywords Seismic response Á Municipal solid waste landfill Á Base isolation Á Geosynthetic liner Á Permanent displacement Abbreviations EPA Environmental protection agency HDPE High-density polyethylene LCS Leachate collection systems MHA Maximum horizontal acceleration MSW Municipal solid waste MSWLF Municipal solid waste landfill OII Operating Industries, Inc Sa/(a max ) max Maximum spectral amplification T m Mean period T s Fundamental period of system UHMWPE Ultrahigh molecular weight polyethylene k Scaling factor 1 Introduction Performance of municipal solid waste (MSW) was not a major concern in the past because instability of MSW was being assumed as an operational problem that could be solved by replacing the waste in stable geometry. Nowa- days, however, recent advances in MSW management including safe burial process, different kinds of synthetic & Yaser Jafarian yjafarianm@iiees.ac.ir Vahid Mirhaji v.mirhaji@srbiau.ac.ir Mohammad H. Baziar baziar@iust.ac.ir Mohammad K. Jafari jafari@iiees.ac.ir 1 Department of Civil Engineering, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran 2 Geotechnical Engineering Research Center, International Institute of Earthquake Engineering and Seismology, P.O. Box: 19395-3913, Tehran, Iran 3 School of Civil Engineering, Iran University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran 123 Int J Civ Eng DOI 10.1007/s40999-017-0232-5