Mathematical Modeling of Characteristics of Leachate Treated with Scrap Tire Shreds as Leachate Collection Medium

Laboratory studies were conducted to investigate scrap-tire-shreds as a potential alternative to conventional gravel in the drainage layer of leachate collection system at the base of landfill. Performance of various physico-chemical characteristics of leachate after passing it through combined bed of scrap-tire-shreds and gravel for different combinations of thickness of scrap-tireshreds and gravel and for different variations of width of scrap-tire-shreds was studied. Best combination with the most suitable size and the percentage improvement in terms of reduction in various physico-chemical parameters of leachate samples was identified. Thus emphasized on using scrap-tire-shreds as potential alternative to conventional gravel in the drainage layer of leachate collection system for treating leachate and this would reduce the magnitude of the current tire disposal problem and convert one waste into a beneficial material. In this paper, equations through mathematical modeling have been developed using the experimental data. These equations can be used for calculation of effluent-influent ratio of physico-chemical characteristics of leachate, after passing the leachate through any combination of combined bed of scrap tire and gravel and also for any size of scrap tire shred. There is a very good agreement between the experiment and theory. KeywordsLeachate, landfills, gravel, scrap-tireshreds, leachate collection layer, mathematical modeling.