Research Initiation Award: Synthetic Turf for Advanced Engineering Landfill Closure System

研究启动奖为历史上黑人学院和大学的初级和中级职业教师提供支持，他们正在建立新的研究项目或重新定向和重建现有的研究项目。预计该奖项将有助于进一步提高教师的研究能力和效率，改善家庭机构的研究和教学，并使本科生参与研究经验。 授予Prairie View A M大学的奖项将支持土木和环境工程的研究。 该项目将探索一个初步设计模型，作为评估使用合成草皮作为填埋场顶盖的框架，并将邀请该机构攻读土木和环境工程学位和职业的本科生参与。最终覆盖物的可持续和成本效益设计取决于设计方法，适当的材料选择，有效的施工和覆盖物的操作。用于废物容纳的典型最终覆盖系统仍然存在施工困难、成本、当地气候因素以及最重要的是性能随时间退化的问题。该项目的基本目标是利用一种相对较新的材料“合成草皮”作为垃圾填埋场的顶部覆盖物，并调查与典型的覆盖方法相比，工程（合成）草皮覆盖物是否可以提高环境和经济的可持续性。该项目的技术范围包括覆盖土壤水分和孔隙水压力的估计，分析土壤水分变化的临界深度，调查田间土壤水分特征曲线（SWCC），研究气候因素对覆盖水文的影响，以及数值模拟覆盖系统的田间行为。为了确定工程草皮覆盖的可行性并执行该项目的技术任务，将进行实地试点研究，其中包括三种类型的覆盖（工程草皮覆盖，传统粘土覆盖和ET覆盖）的并排施工。现场安装包括高性能湿度和温度传感器、张力计和气象站。该项目还涉及覆盖土壤的施工前实验室表征，以模拟有效的覆盖施工和标准化的数值模拟。对该项目中评估的不同覆盖物的技术性能进行比较，将增加对可能影响覆盖物水文的关键因素的了解，并引导决策者选择可持续的覆盖系统。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Research Initiation Awards provide support for junior and mid-career faculty at Historically Black Colleges and Universities who are building new research programs or redirecting and rebuilding existing research programs. It is expected that the award helps to further the faculty member's research capability and effectiveness, improves research and teaching at the home institution, and involves undergraduate students in research experiences. The award to Prairie View A&M University will support research in Civil and Environmental Engineering. The project will explore a preliminary design model that would serve as a framework to evaluate the use of synthetic turf as a landfill top cover, and will engage undergraduate students from the institution who pursue degrees and careers in Civil and Environmental Engineering.The sustainable and cost-effective design of final cover depends on the design methodology, appropriate materials selection, effective construction, and operation of the cover. Typical final cover systems employed for waste containment still have issues with construction difficulties, cost, local climatic factors, and most importantly, performance degradation over time. The fundamental objective of the proposed project is to utilize a relatively new material “Synthetic Turf” as landfill top cover and investigate if the engineered (synthetic) turf cover can improve the environmental and economical sustainability compared to the typical cover methods. The technical scope of the project includes the estimation of cover soil moisture and pore water pressure, analyzing the critical depth of soil moisture variation, investigating the field soil water characteristic curve (SWCC), examining of the effect of climatic factors on cover hydrology, and numerical modeling to simulate the field behavior of the cover systems. To determine the feasibility of the engineered turf cover and pursue the technical tasks of the project, a field pilot study will be conducted that includes side-by-side construction of three types of cover (Engineered Turf Cover, Traditional Clay Cover, and ET Cover). The field installation includes high-performance moisture and temperature sensors, tensiometers, and a weather station. The project also involves the pre-construction laboratory characterization of the cover soil to model efficient cover construction and standardize the numerical simulation. Comparison of the technical performance among different covers evaluated in this project will increase the understanding of critical factors that can impact cover hydrology and lead decision makers to choose the sustainable cover system.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.