Professor Reddy wins ‘2018 Wesley W. Horner Award’
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Professor Krishna Reddy, of UIC’s Department of Civil and Materials Engineering, was recently named the winner of the 2018 Wesley W. Horner Award by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).
The Publication Committee of the Environmental and Water Resources Institute (EWRI) of the ASCE reviews all of the materials published in their journals and selected the award quality papers, which included Reddy’s Modeling Coupled Hydromechanical Behavior of Landfilled Waste in Bioreactor Landfills: Numerical Formulation and Validation.
“It came as a total surprise, which makes it very special. Peers have recognized my published research as award winning quality,” said Reddy. “I’m surprised, humbled and very happy!”
The paper presents a numerical two-phase flow model as a tool to predict hydraulic behavior – moisture distribution and pore fluid pressures – in unsaturated MSW under leachate recirculation, mechanical response (stress-strain behavior), and coupled hydromechanical interactions of MSW in landfills. The selected mathematical model is the Fast Lagrangian Analysis of Continua, which assumes leachate and landfill gas as two immiscible phases. The governing equations and numerical implementation are presented along with the general model implementation considerations. The model is validated by simulating the published laboratory studies, field studies, and published modeled studies.
According to Reddy, the mathematical model will provide environmental professionals the information necessary for the design and operation of effective and safe bioreactor landfills. He also plans to continue building on this research with the support of an NSF grant.
“We are expanding the model to consider thermal and biological processes, ultimately aimed at create thermo-hydro-bio-mechanical model that considers all major coupled processes occurring in bioreactor landfills,” said Reddy. “Such an advanced model will help predict the performance of bioreactor landfills in an accurate manner. It will help design economic and effective leachate recirculation systems for accelerated stabilization of the bioreactor landfills in a safe manner within a shortest time period. We are also promoting sustainable landfill technology involving stabilization of organic fraction in the waste and subsequently mining to recover and reuse inorganic fraction.”
Reddy will officially receive the award during the 2018 EWRI World Environmental and Water Resources Congress held in Minneapolis, MN, in June.
For more information about Professor Reddy’s research, visit SERL & GAGEL.