Mechanical behavior of municipal solid waste incinerator bottom ash: Results from triaxial tests

Bottom ash resulting from the incineration of various domestic wastes can be viewed as a typical granular material. It is mainly used in civil engineering as a substitute for traditional natural aggregates. The purpose of this paper is to characterize their mechanical behavior and evaluate their mechanical properties for engineering applications. First, results of triaxial tests confirm that bottom ash behaves like dense sand. Second, the deformation and strength characteristics of bottom ash, such as the secant modulus, Poisson ratio, characteristic angle, dilation angle, effective cohesion and effective friction angle, are determined. It is found that these mechanical parameters are in close agreement with those of road aggregates and are influenced by the effective confining pressure. Third, the evolution of the deformation modulus according to the axial strain and the variation of the deviator stress according to the mean effective pressure are analyzed. Finally, a set of points of the yielding state is determined from triaxial tests to represent the shape of the yielding surface of bottom ash.