Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Barrett, The Honors College at Arizona State University proudly showcases the work of undergraduate honors students by sharing this collection exclusively with the ASU community.
Barrett accepts high performing, academically engaged undergraduate students and works with them in collaboration with all of the other academic units at Arizona State University. All Barrett students complete a thesis or creative project which is an opportunity to explore an intellectual interest and produce an original piece of scholarly research. The thesis or creative project is supervised and defended in front of a faculty committee. Students are able to engage with professors who are nationally recognized in their fields and committed to working with honors students. Completing a Barrett thesis or creative project is an opportunity for undergraduate honors students to contribute to the ASU academic community in a meaningful way.
Filtering by
- Creators: O'Flaherty, Katherine
- Creators: Civil, Environmental and Sustainable Engineering Programs
- Status: Published
The paper begins with an overview of scholarly articles on shear strength and unit weight of MSW. This overview summarizes trends found in other MSW investigations. The findings described in these articles served as a basis to determine if the direct shear test results in this investigation complied with typical values reported in other MSW investigations.
A majority of this thesis is dedicated to describing testing protocol, nuances of experimental execution, and test results of the direct shear tests. This culminates in an analysis of the shear strength parameters and consolidated unit weight exhibited by the MSW tested herein. Throughout the testing displacement range of 3.5 inches, none of the MSW specimens achieved a peak shear stress. Consequently, the test results were analyzed at displacements of 1.7 inches, 2.1 inches, and 2.4 inches during the tests to develop Mohr-Coulomb envelopes for each specified displacement. All three envelopes indicated that the cohesion of the material was effectively 0 psf). The interpreted angles of internal friction were of 30.6°, 33.7°, and 36.0° for the displacements of 1.7, 2.1, and 2.4 inches, respectively. These values correlate well with values from previous investigations, indicating that from a shear strength basis the waste tested in this project was typical of MSW from other landfills. Analysis of the consolidated unit weight of the MSW specimens also suggests the MSW was similar to in-situ MSW which was placed in a landfill with low levels of compaction and small amounts of cover soil.