A novel mathematical modelling for simulating the spread of heavy metals in solid waste landfills

Municipal solid waste (MSW) landfills create the environmental pollutions due to problems related to toxins, leachate, and greenhouse gas, which are the growing environmental concerns, especially in developing countries. This paper presents a novel mathematical modelling for simulating the spread of heavy metals in soil layers in the MSW landfills. A new mathematical modelling procedure is studied for deriving the governing equation which describes the time varying concentration of pollutants in the leachate in a 3-dimensional (3D) space of soil layers. A Finite Element Method (FEM) based algorithm is then constructed to solve numerically the governing equation over time in 3D space for effectively analyzing the variation of pollutants concentrations. Finally, the applicability and advantages of the proposed novel method are demonstrated through the case study with soil samples collected from the actual MSW landfill. The successfully developed algorithm can be applied to model and predict the spread of different heavy metals in the MSW landfill sites; and to develop effective solutions and policies for solid waste classification and management, in order to minimise the negative impacts from the potential risk of the toxic heavy metal pollutions, soil contaminations and groundwater pollutions in the areas nearby the MSW landfill. © 2022 Korean Society of Environmental Engineers.