Hydrodynamic modeling of leachate recirculating landfills

Leachate recirculation is an emerging technology for the enhanced stabilization of active landfills and in-situ treatment of problematic landfills. A variety of researcher have documented the benefits of increasing landfill moisture content and liquid movement through the fill. However, little work has addressed the hydrodynamic characteristics of the recirculating landfill, specifically the effect of leachate flow rate and waste characteristics upon leachate routing. This paper presents the results of mathematical modeling of the horizontal infiltration trench and vertical infiltration well, two commonly employed leachate application methods. The results of transient unsaturated flow modeling are detailed.