EPA/600/R-94/168a
September 1994
THE HYDROLOGIC EVALUATION OF LANDFILL
PERFORMANCE (HELP) MODEL
USER'S GUIDE FOR VERSION 3
by
Paul R. Schroeder, Cheryl M. Lloyd, and Paul A. Zappi
Environmental Laboratory
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
Waterways Experiment Station
Vicksburg, Mississippi 39180-6199
and
Nadim M. Aziz
Department of Civil Engineering
Clemson University
Clemson, South Carolina 29634-0911
Interagency Agreement No. DW21931425
Project Officer
Robert E. Landreth
Waste Minimization, Destruction and Disposal Research Division
Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory
Cincinnati, Ohio 45268
RISK REDUCTION ENGINEERING LABORATORY
OFFICE OF RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT
U.S. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY
CINCINNATI, OHIO 45268
Printed on Recycled Paper
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DISCLAIMER
The information in this document has been funded wholly or in part by the United
States Environmental Protection Agency under Interagency Agreement No. DW21931425
to the U.S. Army Engineer Waterways Experiment Station. It has been subjected to the
Agency's peer and administrative review, and it has been approved for publication as an
EPA document. Mention of trade names or commercial products does not constitute
endorsement or recommendation for use.
u
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FOREWORD
Today's rapidly developing and changing technologies and industrial products and
practices frequently carry with them the increased generation of materials that, if
improperly dealt with, can threaten both public health and the environment. Abandoned
waste sites and accidental releases of toxic and hazardous substances to the environment
also have important environmental and public health implications. The Risk Reduction
Engineering Laboratory assists in providing an authoritative and defensible engineering
basis for assessing and solving these problems. Its products support the policies,
programs and regulations of the Environmental Protection Agency, the permitting and
other responsibilities of State and local governments, and the needs of both large and
small businesses in handling their wastes responsibly and economically.
This report presents guidance on the use of the Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill
Performance (HELP) computer program. The HELP program is a quasi-two-dimensional
hydrologic model for conducting water balance analysis of landfills, cover systems, and
other solid waste containment facilities. The model accepts weather, soil and design
data, and uses solution techniques that account for the effects of surface storage,
snowmelt, runoff, infiltration, evapotranspiration, vegetative growth, soil moisture
storage, lateral subsurface drainage, leachaterecirculation, unsaturated vertical drainage,
and leakage through soil, geomembrane or composite liners. Landfill systems including
various combinations of vegetation, cover soils, waste cells, lateral drain layers, low
permeability barrier soils, and synthetic geomembrane liners may be modeled. The
model facilitates rapid estimation of the amounts of runoff, evapotranspiration, drainage,
leachate collection and liner leakage that may be expected to result from the operation
of a wide variety of landfill designs. The primary purpose of the model is to assist in
the comparison of design alternatives. The model is a tool for both designers and permit
writers.
E. Timothy Oppelt, Director
Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory
in
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ABSTRACT
The Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) computer program is
a quasi-two-dimensional hydrologic model of water movement across, into, through and
out of landfills. The model accepts weather, soil and design data and uses solution
techniques that account for the effects of surface storage, snowmelt, runoff, infiltration,
evapotranspiration, vegetative growth, soil moisture storage, lateral subsurface drainage,
leachate recirculation, unsaturated vertical drainage, and leakage through soil,
geomembrane or composite liners. Landfill systems including various combinations of
vegetation, cover soils, waste cells, lateral drain layers, low permeability barrier soils,
and synthetic geomembrane liners may be modeled. The program was developed to
conduct water balance analyses of landfills, cover systems, and solid waste disposal and
containment facilities. As such, the model facilitates rapid estimation of the amounts of
runoff, evapotranspiration, drainage, leachate collection, and liner leakage that may be
expected to result from the operation of a wide variety of landfill designs. The primary
purpose of the model is to assist in the comparison of design alternatives as judged by
their water balances. The model, applicable to open, partially closed, and fully closed
sites, is a tool for both designers and permit writers.
This report documents the solution methods and process descriptions used in
Version 3 of the HELP model. Program documentation including program options,
system and operating requirements, file structures, program structure and variable
descriptions are provided in a separate report. Section 1 provides basic program
identification. Section 2 provides a narrative description of the simulation model.
Section 3 presents data generation algorithms and default values used in Version 3.
Section 4 describes the method of solution and hydrologic process algorithms. Section
5 lists the assumptions and limitations of the HELP model.
The user interface or input facility is written in the Quick Basic environment of
Microsoft Basic Professional Development System Version 7.1 and runs under DOS 2.1
or higher on IBM-PC and compatible computers. The HELP program uses an interactive
and a user-friendly input facility designed to provide the user with as much assistance as
possible in preparing data to run the model. The program provides weather and soil data
file management, default data sources, interactive layer editing, on-line help, and data
verification and accepts weather data from the most commonly used sources with several
different formats.
HELP Version 3 represents a significant advancement over the input techniques of
Version 2. Users of the HELP model should find HELP Version 3 easy to use and
should be able to use it for many purposes, such as preparing and editing landfill profiles
and weather data. Version 3 facilitates use of metric units, international applications, and
designs with geosynthetic materials.
IV
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This report should be cited as follows:
Schroeder, P. R., Dozier, T.S., Zappi, P. A., McEnroe, B. M.,
Sjostrom, J. W., and Peyton, R. L. (1994). "The Hydrologic Evaluation
of Landfill Performance (HELP) Model: Engineering Documentation for
Version 3," EPA/600/9-94/xxx, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
Risk Reduction Engineering Lalx>ratory, Cincinnati, OH.
This report was submitted in partial fulfillment of Interagency Agreement Number
DW21931425 between the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army
Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, MS. This report covers a period
from November 1988 to August 1994 and work was completed as of August 1994.
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CONTENTS
Page
DISCLAIMER ii
FOREWORD iii
ABSTRACT iv
FIGURES viii
TABLES ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS x
1. INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Background 1
1.2 Overview 3
1.3 System and Operating Documentation 3
1.3.1 Computer Equipment 3
1.3.2 Required Hardware 3
1.3.3 Software Requirements 4
2. BASIC LANDFILL DESIGN CONCEPTS 5
2.1 Background 5
2.2 Leachate Production 5
2.3 Design for Leachate Control 6
3. PROGRAM DEFINITIONS, OPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS 9
3.1 Introduction 9
3.2 Weather Data Requirements 9
3.2.1 Evapotranspiration Data 9
3.2.2 Precipitation Data 14
3.2.3 Temperature Data 19
3.2.4 Solar Radiation Data 22
3.3 Soil and Design Data Requirements . .. 24
3.3.1 Landfill General Information 24
3.3.2 Layer Data 25
3.3.3 Lateral Drainage Layer Design Data 25
3.3.4 Geomembrane Liner Data 26
3.3.5 Runoff Curve Number Information 26
VI
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CONTENTS (continued)
Page
3.4 Landfill Profile and Layer Descriptions 26
3.5 Soil Characteristics 29
3.6 Geomembrane Characteristics . . . . 33
3.7 Site Characteristics '...'".." 35
3.8 Overview of Modeling Procedure . 36
3.9 Assumptions and Limitations 37
3.9.1 Solution Methods . 37
3.9.2 Limits of Application 39
4. PROGRAM INPUT 42
4.1 Introduction 42
4.2 Definitions and Rules 42
4.3 Program Structure 45
4.4 Main Menu 45
4.5 Weather Data 47
4.5.1 Weather Data File Selection 47
4.5.2 Evapotranspiration (ET) Data 49
4.5.3 Precipitation, Temperature
and Solar Radiation Data 51
4.5.4 Saving Weather Data 60
4.6 Soil and Design Data 62
4.6.1 Soil and Design Data File Selection 62
4.6.2 Landfill General Information 64
4.6.3 Landfill Layer Design 65
4.6.4 Runoff Curve Number . . . 73
4.6.5 Verifying and Saving Soil and Design Data 75
4.7 Executing the Simulation 77
4.8 Viewing Results 79
4.9 Printing Results 79
4.10 Displaying Guidance 81
4.11 Quitting HELP 81
REFERENCES . . 82
BIBLIOGRAPHY 84
APPENDK A: Calculating Soil, Waste and Material Properties Al
Vll
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FIGURES
No.
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
Schematic of Landfill Profile Illustrating Typical
Landfill Features
Relation between SCS Curve Number and Default
Soil Texture Number for Various Levels of Vegetation
HELP3 Main Menu
Schematic of Weather Data Module
Schematic of "Weather Data - File Editing" Screen
Schematic of "Evapotranspiration Data" Screen
Schematic of "Precipitation, Temperature and Solar
Radiation" Screen
Precipitation Options
Temperature Options
Solar Radiation Options
"Weather Data - File Saving" Screen Options
Schematic of Soil and Design Data Module
"Soil and Design Data - File Editing" Screen Options
Schematic of "Landfill General Information" Screen
Schematic of Landfill Layer Data
Schematic of "Runoff Curve Number Information"
Screen Options
Verify and Save Soil and Design Data Options
Schematic of "Execute Simulation" Option
Schematic of "View Results" Option
Schematic of "Print Results" Option
Page
.... 7
36
.... 46
.... 47
.... 48
.... 50
.... 52
.... 52
53
54
.... 61
.... 62
.... 63
. . . . 64
.... 66
73
.... 75
.... 78
.... 80
.... 80
Vlll
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TABLES
No.
1
2
3
4
Cities For Evapotranspiration Data and Synthetic Temperature
and Solar Radiation Data 11
Cities For Default Historical Precipitation Data . . . 15
Cities For Synthetic Precipitation Data 17
Default Soil, Waste, and Geosynthetic Characteristics 30
IX
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The support of the project by the Waste Minimization, Destruction and Disposal
Research Division, Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory, U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH and the Headquarters, U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers, Washington, DC, through Interagency Agreement No. DW21931425 is
appreciated. In particular, the authors wish to thank the U.S. EPA Project Officer,
Mr. Robert Landreth, for his long standing support.
The draft version of this document was prepared at Clemson University by
Dr. Nadim M. Aziz, the author of the HELP Version 3 user interface, under contract
with the USEPA Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory and the USAE Waterways
Experiment Station. The final version of this document was prepared at the USAE
Waterways Experiment Station by Dr. Paul R. Schroeder and Ms. Cheryl M. Lloyd.
Appendix A was written by Mr. Paul A. Zappi. The figures used in the report were
prepared by Messrs. Jimmy Farrell and Christopher Chao.
The report and user interface were reviewed by Messrs. Elba A. Dardeau, Jr., and
Daniel E. Averett. This report has not been subjected to the EPA review and, therefore,
the contents do not necessarily reflect the views of the Agency, and no official
endorsement should be inferred.
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SECTION 1
INTRODUCTION
The Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance (HELP) computer program is
a quasi-two-dimensional hydrologic model of water movement across, into, through and
out of landfills. The model accepts weather, soil and design data, and uses solution
techniques that account for the effects of surface storage, snowmelt, runoff, infiltration,
evapotranspiration, vegetative growth, soil moisture storage, lateral subsurface drainage,
leachate recirculation, unsaturated vertical drainage, and leakage through soil,
geomembrane or composite liners. Landfill systems including various combinations of
vegetation, cover soils, waste cells, lateral drain layers, low permeability barrier soils,
and synthetic geomembrane liners may be modeled. The program was developed to
conduct water balance analysis of landfills, cover systems and solid waste disposal and
containment facilities. As such, the model facilitates rapid estimation of the amounts of
runoff, evapotranspiration, drainage, leachate collection and liner leakage that may be
expected to result from the operation of a wide variety of landfill designs. The primary
purpose of the model is to assist in the comparison of design alternatives ,as judged by
their water balances. The model, applicable to open, partially closed, and fully closed
sites, is a tool for both designers and permit writers.
1.1 BACKGROUND
The HELP program, Versions 1, 2 and 3, was developed by the U.S. Army Engineer
Waterways Experiment Station (WES), Vicksburg, MS, for the U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA), Risk Reduction Engineering Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH, in
response to needs in the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) and the
Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act (CERCLA,
better known as Superfund) as identified by [the EPA Office of Solid Waste,
Washington, DC.
HELP Version 1 (Schroeder et al., 1984) represented a major advance beyond the
Hydrologic Simulation on Solid Waste Disposal Sites (HSSWDS) program (Perrier and
Gibson, 1980; Schroeder and Gibson, 1982), which was also developed at WES. The
HSSWDS model simulated only the cover system, did not model lateral flow through
drainage layers, and handled vertical drainage only in a rudimentary manner. The
infiltration, percolation and evapotranspiration routines were almost identical to those
used in the Chemicals, Runoff, and Erosion from Agricultural Management Systems
(CREAMS) model, which was developed by Knisel (1980) for the U.S. Department of
Agriculture (USDA). The runoff and infiltration routines relied heavily on the
Hydrology Section of the National Engineering Handbook (USDA, Soil Conservation
Service, 1985). Version 1 of the HELP model incorporated a lateral subsurface drainage
model ;and improved unsaturated drainage and liner leakage models into ithe HSSWDS
1
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model. In addition, the HELP model provided simulation of the entire landfill including
leachate collection and liner systems.
Version 2 (Schroeder et al., 1988) represented a great enhancement of the capabilities
of the HELP model. The WGEN synthetic weather generator developed by the USDA
Agricultural Research Service (ARS) (Richardson and Wright, 1984) was added to the
model to yield daily values of precipitation, temperature and solar radiation. This
replaced the use of normal mean monthly temperature and solar radiation values and
improved the modeling of snow and evapotranspiration. Also, a vegetative growth model
from the Simulator for Water Resources in Rural Basins (SWRRB) model developed by
the ARS (Arnold et al., 1989) was merged into the HELP model to calculate daily leaf
area indices. Modeling of unsaturated hydraulic conductivity and flow and lateral
drainage computations were improved. Accuracy was increased with the use of double
precision. Default soil data were improved, and the model permitted use of more layers
and initialization of soil moisture content. Input and editing were simplified. Output was
clarified, and standard deviations were reported.
In Version 3, the HELP model has been greatly enhanced beyond Version 2. The
number of layers that can be modeled has been increased. The default soil/material
texture list has been expanded to contain additional waste materials, geomembranes,
geosynthetic drainage nets and compacted soils. The model also permits the use of a
user-built library of soil textures. Computation of leachate recirculation between soil
layers and groundwater drainage into the landfill have been added. Moreover, HELP
Version 3 accounts for leakage through geomembranes due to manufacturing defects
(pinholes) and installation defects (punctures, tears and seaming flaws) and by vapor
diffusion through the liner. The estimation of runoff from the surface of the landfill has
been improved to account for large landfill surface slopes and slope lengths. The
snowmelt model has been replaced with an energy-based model; the Priestly-Taylor
potential evapotranspiration model has been replaced with a Penman method,
incorporating wind and humidity effects as well as long wave radiation losses (heat loss
at night). A frozen soil model has been added to improve infiltration and runoff
predictions in cold regions. The unsaturated vertical drainage model has also been
improved to aid in storage computations. Input and editing have been further simplified
with interactive, full-screen, menu-driven input techniques.
In addition, the HELP Version 3 model provides a variety of methods for specifying
precipitation, temperature and solar radiation data. Now, data from the most commonly
available government and commercial sources can be imported easily. Moreover, data
used in HELP Version 2 can still be used with minimum user effort. Specifying weather
data manually and editing previously entered weather data can be easily done by using
built-in spreadsheet facilities.
The use of data files in Version 3 is much simpler and more convenient than HELP
Version 2 because data are saved permanently in user defined file names at a user-
specified location. Similarly, the user has more flexibility to define units for every type
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of data needed to run the HELP model. Finally, Version 3 of the HELP model provides
on-line help at every step of the data preparation process.
Although applicable to most landfill applications, the HELP model was developed
specifically to perform hazardous and municipal waste disposal landfill evaluations as
required by RCRA. Hazardous waste disposal landfills generally should have a liner to
prevent migration of waste from the landfill, a final cover to minimize the production of
leachate following closure, careful controls of runon and runoff, and limits on the
buildup of leachate head over the liner to no more than 1 ft. The HELP model is useful
for predicting the amounts of runoff, drainage, and leachate expected for reasonable
designs as well as the buildup of leachate above the liner. However, the model should
not be expected to produce credible results from input unrepresentative of landfills.
1.2 OVERVIEW
The principal purpose of this User's Guide is to provide the basic information needed
to use the computer program. Thus, while some attention must be given to definitions,
descriptions of variables and interpretation of results, only a minimal amount of such
information is provided. Detailed documentation providing in-depth coverage of the
theory and assumptions on which the model is based and the internal logic of the
program is also available (Schroeder et al., 1994). Potential HELP users are strongly
encouraged to study the documentation and this User's Guide before attempting to use
the program to evaluate a landfill design. Additional documentation concerning the
sensitivity of program inputs, application of the model and verification of model
predictions are under development.
1.3 SYSTEM AND OPERATING DOCUMENTATION
1.3.1 Computer Equipment
The model entitled "The Hydrologic Evaluation of Landfill Performance" (HELP)
was written to run on IBM-compatible personal computers (PC) under the DOS
environment.
1.3.2 Required Hardware
The following IBM-compatible CPU (8088, 80286, 80386 or 80486) hardware is
required:
1. Monitor, preferably color EGA or better
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2. Floppy disk drive (5.25-inch double-sided, double- or high-density; or 3.5-inch
double-sided, double- or high-density)
3. Hard disk drive or a second floppy disk drive
4. 400k bytes or more of available RAM memory
5. 8087, 80287, 80387 or 80486 math co-processor
6. Printer, if a hard copy is desired
1.3.3 Software Requirements
The user must use Microsoft or compatible Disk Operating Systems (MS-DOS)
Version 2.10 or a higher version. The user interface executable module was compiled
and linked with Microsoft Basic Professional Development System 7.1. Other executable
components were compiled with the Ryan-McFarland FORTRAN Version 2.42. The
Microsoft Basic Professional Development System and Ryan-McFarland FORTRAN
compiler are not needed to run the HELP Model.
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SECTION 2
BASIC LANDFILL DESIGN CONCEPTS
2.1 BACKGROUND
Over the past 20 to 30 years, the sanitary landfill has come to be widely recognized
as an economic and effective means for disposal of municipal and industrial solid wastes.
Today, modern methods of landfill construction and management are sufficiently
developed to ensure that even large volumes of such materials can be handled and
disposed of in such a way as to protect public health and minimize adverse effects on the
environment.
Recently, public attention has been focused on a special class of materials commonly
referred to as hazardous wastes. The chemical and physical diversity, environmental
persistence, and acute and chronic detrimental effects on human, plant and animal health
of many of these substances are such that great care must be exercised in their disposal.
Hazardous wastes are produced in such large quantities and are so diverse that
universally acceptable disposal methods have yet to be devised. However, for the
present, disposal or storage in secure landfills is usually a prudent approach. The current
state of the art is an extension of sanitary landfill technology using very conservative
design criteria. Some important basic principles and concepts of landfill design are
summarized below. Specific emphasis is given to disposal of hazardous materials, but
the discussion is also applicable to ordinary sanitary landfills.
2.2 LEACHATE PRODUCTION
Storage of any waste material in a landfill poses several potential problems. One
problem is the possible contamination of soil, groundwater and surface water that may
occur as leachate produced by water or liquid wastes moving into, through and out of the
landfill migrates into adjacent areas. This problem is especially important when
hazardous wastes are involved because many of these substances are quite resistant to
biological or chemical degradation and, thus, are expected to persist in their original
form for many years, perhaps even for centuries. Given this possibility hazardous waste
landfills should be designed to prevent any waste or leachate from ever moving into
adjacent areas. This objective is beyond the capability of current technology but does
represent a goal in the design and operation of today's landfills. The HELP model has
been developed specifically as a tool to be used by designers and regulatory reviewers
for selecting practical designs that minimize potential contamination problems.
In the context of a landfill, leachate is described as liquid that has percolated through
the layers of waste material. Thus, leachate may be composed of liquids that originate
from a number of sources, including precipitation, groundwater, consolidation, initial
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moisture storage, and reactions associated with decomposition of waste materials. The
chemical quality of leachate varies as a function of a number of factors, including the
quantity produced, the original nature of the buried waste materials, and the various
chemical and biochemical reactions that may occur as the waste materials decompose.
In the absence of evidence to the contrary, most regulatory agencies prefer to assume that
any leachate produced will contaminate either ground or surface waters; in the light of
the potential water quality impact of leachate contamination, this assumption appears
reasonable.
The quantity of leachate produced is affected to some extent by decomposition
reactions and initial moisture content; however, it is largely governed by the amount of
external water entering the landfill. Thus, a key first step in controlling leachate
migration is to limit production by preventing, to the extent feasible, the entry of external
water into the waste layers. A second step is to collect any leachate that is produced for
subsequent treatment and disposal. Techniques are currently available to limit the
amount of leachate that migrates into adjoining areas to a virtually immeasurable volume,
as long as the integrity of the landfill structure and leachate control system is maintained.
2.3 DESIGN FOR LEACHATE CONTROL
A schematic profile view of a somewhat typical hazardous waste landfill is shown
in Figure 1. The bottom layer of soil may be naturally existing material or it may be
hauled in, placed and compacted to specifications following excavation to a suitable
subgrade. In either case, the base of the landfill should act as a liner with some
minimum thickness and a very low hydraulic conductivity (or permeability). Treatments
may be used on the barrier soil to reduce its permeability to an acceptable level. As an
added factor of safety, an impermeable synthetic membrane may be placed on the top of
the barrier soil layer to form a composite liner.
Immediately above the bottom composite liner is a leakage detection drainage layer
to collect leakage from the primary liner, in this case, a geomembrane. Above the
primary liner are a geosynthetic drainage net and a sand layer that serve as drainage
layers for leachate collection. The drain layers composed of sand are typically at least
1-ft thick and have suitably spaced perforated or open joint drain pipe embedded below
the surface of the liner. The leachate collection drainage layer serves to collect any
leachate that may percolate through the waste layers. In this case where the liner is
solely a geomembrane, a drainage net may be used to rapidly drain leachate from the
liner, avoiding a significant buildup of head and limiting leakage. The liners are sloped
to prevent ponding by encouraging leachate to flow toward the drains. The net effect is
that very little leachate should percolate through the primary liner and virtually no
migration of leachate through the bottom composite liner to the natural formations below.
Taken as a whole, the drainage layers, geomembrane liners, and barrier soil liners may
be referred to as the leachate collection and removal system (drain/liner system) and
more specifically a double liner system.
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eVAPOTMMSPIfUJTOH
- VEQETATIOM \ RUNOFF
VERTICAL
PERCOLATION LAYER
(2) LATERAL DRAINAGE LAYER SAND LATERAL ORMNA3E
fl) —
GEOMEMBRANE LINER
(4) BARRIER SOIL LAYER
(Ffiou coven)
•••HI
SLOPS
CLAY
PERCOLATION
(6) LATERAL DRAINAGE LAYER SAND
(l\ LATERAL DRAINAGE NET-
LATERAL DRAINAGE
(LSACHATECOLLECT/DM)
GEOMEMBRANE LINER
LATERAL DRAINAGE
LAYER
SAND
LEAKAGE
LATERAL DRAINAGE
BARRIER SOIL LINER
CLAY
UAXIUUU
DRAINAGE
DISTANCE
\ PERCOLATION (LEAKAGE)
I
VERTICAL
PERCOLATION
LAYER
1
WASTE
Figure 1. Schematic of Landfill Profile Illustrating Typical Landfill Features
7
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After the landfill is closed, the leachate collection and removal system serves
basically in a back-up capacity. However, while the landfill is open and waste is being
added, these components constitute the principal defense against contamination of
adjacent areas. Thus, care must be given to their design and construction.
Day-to-day operation of a modern sanitary landfill calls for wastes to be placed in
relatively thin lifts, compacted, and covered with soil each day. Thus, wastes should not
remain exposed for more than a few hours. Although the daily soil cover serves
effectively to hide the wastes and limit the access of nuisance insects and potential
disease vectors, it is of limited value for preventing the formation of leachate. Thus,
even though a similar procedure can be used for hazardous wastes, the drainage/liner
system must function well throughout and after the active life of the landfill.
When the capacity of the landfill is reached, the waste cells may be covered with a
cap or final cover, typically composed of four distinct layers as shown in Figure 1. At
the base of the cap is a drainage layer and a liner system layer similar to that used at the
base of the landfill. Again, a geomembrane liner would normally be used in conjunction
with the barrier soil liner for hazardous waste landfill but has been used less frequently
in municipal waste landfills. The top of the barrier soil layer is graded so that water
percolating into the drainage layer will tend to move horizontally toward some removal
system (drain) located at the edge of the landfill or subunit thereof.
A layer of soil suitable for vegetative growth is placed at the top of final cover
system to complete the landfill. A 2-ft-thick layer of soil having a loamy, silty nature
serves this purpose well. The upper surface is graded so that runon is restricted and
infiltration is controlled to provide moisture for vegetation while limiting percolation
through the topsoil. Runoff is promoted but controlled to prevent excessive erosion of
the cap. The vegetation used should be selected for ease of establishment in a given
area, promotion of evapotranspiration and year-round protection from erosion. The root
system should not penetrate, disrupt or desiccate the upper liner system (Layers # 3 and
# 4). Grasses are usually best for this purpose; however, local experts should be
consulted to aid in selection of appropriate species.
The combination of site selection, surface grading, transpiration from vegetation, soil
evaporation, drainage through the sand, and the low hydraulic conductivity of the barrier
soil liner serves effectively to minimize leachate production from external water. Added
effectiveness is gained by the use of geomembrane liners in the cap in conjunction with
the barrier soil liner. The cap should be no more permeable than the leachate collection
and removal system so that the landfill will not gradually fill and overflow into adjacent
areas following abandonment of the landfill. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to
as the "bathtub" effect.
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SECTION 3
PROGRAM DEFINITIONS, OPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS
3.1 INTRODUCTION
The HELP program was developed to provide landfill designers and regulators with
a tool for rapid, economical screening of alternative designs. The program may be used
to estimate the magnitudes of various components of the water budget, including the
volume of leachate produced and the thickness of water-saturated soil (head) above liners.
The results may be used to compare the leachate production potential of alternative
designs, to select and size appropriate drainage and collection systems, and to size
leachate treatment facilities.
The program uses weather (climatic), soil and design data to generate daily estimates
of water movement across, into, through and out of landfills. TO accomplish this
objective and compute a water balance, daily precipitation is partitioned into surface
storage (snow), snowmelt, interception, runoff, infiltration, surface evaporation,
evapotranspiration from soil, subsurface moisture storage, liner leakage (percolation), and
subsurface lateral drainage to collection, removal and recireulation systems.
This section discusses data requirements, nomenclature, important assumptions and
limitations, and other fundamental information needed to run the program. The program
documentation report (Schrpeder et al,, 1994) contains detailed explanations of the
solution techniques employed and the computer programs.
The HELP program requires three general types of input data: weather data, soil
data and design data. A summary of input options and data requirements is presented
in this section. Section 4 provides step-by-step input instructions.
3.2 WEATHER DATA REQUIREMENTS
The weather data required in the HELP model are classified into four groups:
evapotranspiration, precipitation, temperature, and solar radiation data. The HELP user
may enter weather data using several options depending on the type of weather data being
considered. The requirements for each weather data type are listed below. The units
used are also listed next to each data type and/or variable. Customary units are based
on the US Customary units, and Metric implies SI units.
3.2.1 Evapptranspiratipn Djata
The evapotranspiration data can be Centered in one of two
-------
1. Default Evapotranspiration Option with Location Specific Guidance (Customary and
Metric Units). This option uses the data provided by the HELP model for selected
U.S. cities. The cities are listed in Table 1. The data needed for this option are:
• Location
• Evaporative zone depth (Guidance is available for the selected location based
on a thick layer of loamy soil with a grassy form of vegetation. Clayey soils
would generally have larger evaporative zone depths since it exerts greater
capillary suction; analogously, sandy soils would have smaller evaporative depths.
Shrubs and trees with tap roots would have larger evaporative zone depths than
the values given in the guidance.) The user must specify an evaporative zone
depth and can use the guidance along with specific design information to select
a value. The program does not permit the evaporative depth to exceed the depth
to the top of the topmost liner. Similarly, the evaporative zone depth would not
be expected to extend very far into a sand drainage layer. The evaporative zone
depth must be greater than zero. The evaporative zone depth is the maximum
depth from which water may be removed by evapotranspiration. The value
specified influences the storage of water near the surface and therefore directly
affects the computations for evapotranspiration and runoff. Where surface
vegetation is present, the evaporative depth should at least equal the expected
average depth of root penetration. The influence of plant roots usually extends
somewhat below the depth of root penetration because of capillary suction to the
roots. The depth specified should be characteristic of the maximum depth to
which the moisture changes near the surface due to drying over the course of a
year, typically occurring during peak evaporative demand or when peak quantity
of vegetation is present. Setting the evaporative depth equal to the expected
average root depth would tend to yield a low estimate of evapotranspiration and
a high estimate of drainage through the evaporative zone. An evaporative depth
should be specified for bare ground to account for direct evaporation from the
soil; this depth would be a function of the soil type and vapor and heat flux at the
surface. The depth of capillary draw to the surface without vegetation or to the
root zone may be only several inches in gravels; in sands the depth may be about
4 to 8 inches, in silts about 8 to 18 inches, and in clays about 12 to 60 inches.
• Maximum leaf area index (Guidance is available for the selected location). The
user must enter a maximum value of leaf area index for the vegetative cover.
Leaf area index (LAI) is defined as the dimensionless ratio of the leaf area of
actively transpiring vegetation to the nominal surface area of the land on which
the vegetation is growing. The program provides the user with a maximum LAI
value typical of the location selected if the value entered by the user cannot be
supported without irrigation because of low rainfall or a short growing season.
This statement should be considered only as a warning. The maximum LAI for
bare ground is zero. For a poor stand of grass the LAI could approach 1.0; for
a fair stand of grass, 2.0; for a good stand of grass, 3.5; and for an excellent
10
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TABLE 1. CITIES FOR EVAPOTRANSPIRATION DATA AND
SYNTHETIC TEMPERATURE AND SOLAR RADIATION DATA
ALABAMA
Birmingham
Mobile
Montgomery
ALASKA
Annette
Bethel
Fairbanks
ARIZONA
Flagstaff
Phoenix
Tucson
Yuma
ARKANSAS
Fort Smith
Little Rock
CALIFORNIA
Bakers field
Blue Canyon
Eureka
Fresno
Los Angeles
Mt. Shasta
Sacramento
San Diego
San Francisco
Santa Maria
COLORADO
Colorado Springs
Denver
Grand Junction
Pueblo
CONNECTICUT
Bridgeport
Hartford
New Haven
Windsor Locks
DELAWARE
Wilmington
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Washington
FLORIDA
Jacksonville
Miami
Orlando
Tallahassee
Tampa
West Palm Beach
GEORGIA
Atlanta
Augusta
Macon
Savannah
Watkinsville
HAWAH
Honolulu
IDAHO
Boise
Pocatello
ILLINOIS
Chicago
East St. Louis
INDIANA
Evansville
Fort Wayne
Indianapolis
IOWA
Des Moines
Dubuque
KANSAS
Dodge City
Topeka
Wichita
KENTUCKY
Covington
Lexington
Louisville
LOUISIANA
Baton Rouge
Lake Charles
New Orleans
Shreveport
MAINE
Augusta
Bangor
Caribou
Portland
MARYLAND
Baltimore
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston
Nan tucket
Plainfield
Worchester
MICHIGAN
Detroit
East Lansing
Grand Rapids
Sault Sainte Marie
MINNESOTA
Duluth
Minneapolis
St. Cloud
MISSISSIPPI
Jackson
Meridian
MISSOURI
Columbia
Kansas City
St. Louis
MONTANA
Billings
Glasgow
Great Falls
Havre
Helena
Kalispell
Miles City
NEBRASKA
Grand Island
North Platte
Omaha
Scottsbluff
NEVADA
Elko
Ely
Las Vegas
Reno
Winnemucca
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord
Mt. Washington
Nashua
NEW JERSEY
Edison
Newark
Seabrook
NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque
Roswell
NEW YORK
Albany
Buffalo
Central Park
Ithaca
New York
Syracuse
NORTH CAROLINA
Asheville
Charlotte
Greensboro
Raleigh
NORTH DAKOTA
Bismarck
WilUston
OHIO
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Columbus
Put-in-Bay
Toledo
OKLAHOMA
Olkahoma City
Tulsa
OREGON
Astoria
Burns
Meacham
Medford
Pendleton
Portland
Salem
Sexton Summit
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
RHODE ISLAND
Providence
SOUTH CAROLINA
Charleston
Columbia
SOUTH DAKOTA
Huron
Rapid City
TENNESSEE
Chattanooga
Knoxville
Memphis
Nashville
("Continued)
11
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TABLE 1 (continued). CITIES FOR EVAPOTRANSPIRATION DATA AND
SYNTHETIC TEMPERATURE AND SOLAR RADIATION DATA
TEXAS
Abilene
Amarillo
Austin
Brownsville
Corpus Christ!
Dallas
El Paso
Calves ton
Houston
Midland
San Antonio
Temple
Waco
UTAH
Cedar City
Milford
Salt Lake City
VERMONT
Burlington
Montpelicr
Rutland
VIRGINIA
Lynchburg
Norfolk
Richmond
WASHINGTON
Olympia
Pullman
Seattle
Spokane
Stampede Pass
Walla Walk
Yakima
WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston
WISCONSIN
Green Bay
Lacrosse
Madison
Milwaukee
WYOMING
Cheyenne
Lander
PUERTO RICO
San Juan
(Concluded)
stand of grass, 5.0. The LAI for dense stands of trees and shrubbery would also
approach 5. The program is largely insensitive to values above 5. If the
vegetative species limit plant transpiration (such as succulent plants), the
maximum LAI value should be reduced to a value equivalent of the LAI for a
stand of grass that would yield a similar quantity of plant transpiration. Most
landfills would tend to have at best a fair stand of grass and often only a poor
stand of grass because landfills are not designed as ideal support systems for
vegetative growth. Surface soils are commonly shallow and provide little
moisture storage for dry periods. Many covers may have drains to remove
infiltrated water quickly, reducing moisture storage. Some covers have liners
near the surface restricting root penetration and causing frequent saturation of the
surface soil which limits oxygen availability to the roots. Some landfills produce
large quantities of gas which, if uncontrolled, reduces the oxygen availability in
the rooting zone and therefore limits plant growth.
The program produces values for the Julian dates starting and ending the growing
season, die annual average wind speed, and the quarterly average relative humidity for
the location. The values for the growing season should be checked carefully to agree
with the germination and harvesting (end of seasonal growth) dates for your type of
vegetation. For example, grasses in southern California would germinate in the fall
when the rains occur and die off in late spring when the soil moisture is depleted. This
contrasts with a typical growing season, which would start in the spring and end in the
fall.
2. Manual Option (Customary and Metric Units). The data needed for this option are:
12
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• Location
• Evaporative zone depth. The user must specify an evaporative zone depth and
can use the guidance given under the default option along with specific design
information to select a value. The program does not permit the evaporative depth
to exceed the depth to the top of the topmost barrier soil layer. Similarly, the
evaporative zone depth would not be expected to extend very far into a sand
drainage layer. The evaporative zone depth must be greater than zero. The
evaporative zone depth is the maximum depth from which water may be removed
by evapotranspiration. The value specified influences the storage of water near
the surface and, therefore, directly affects the computations for evapotranspiration
and runoff. Where surface vegetation is present, the evaporative depth should at
least equal the expected average depth of root penetration. The influence of plant
roots usually extends somewhat below the depth of root penetration because of
capillary suction to the roots. The depth specified should be characteristic of the
maximum depth to which the moisture changes near the surface due to drying
over the course of a year, typically occurring during peak evaporative demand or
when peak quantity of vegetation is present. Setting the evaporative depth equal
to the expected average root depth would tend to yield a low estimate of
evapotranspiration and a high estimate of drainage through the evaporative zone.
An evaporative depth should be specified for bare ground to account for direct
evaporation from the soil; this depth would be a function of the soil type and
vapor and heat flux at the surface. The depth of capillary draw to the surface
without vegetation or to the root zone may be only several inches in gravels; in
sands the depth may be about 4 to 8 inches, in silts about 8 to 18 inches, and in
clays about 12 to 60 inches. Rooting depth is dependent on many factors —
species, moisture availability, maturation, soil type and plant density. In humid
areas where moisture is readily available near the surface, grasses may have
rooting depth of 6 to 24 inches. In drier areas, the rooting depth is very sensitive
to plant species and to the depth to which moisture is stored and may range from
6 to 48 inches. The evaporative zone depth would be somewhat greater than the
rooting depth. The local Agricultural Extension Service office can provide
information on characteristic rooting depths for vegetation in specific areas.
• Maximum leaf area index. The user must enter a maximum value of leaf area
index (LAI) for the vegetative cover. LAI is defined as the dimensionless ratio
of the leaf area of actively transpiring vegetation to the nominal surface area of
the land on which the vegetation is growing. The program provides the user with
a maximum LAI value typical of the location selected if the value entered by the
user cannot be supported without irrigation because of low rainfall or a short
growing season. This statement should be considered only as a warning. The
maximum LAI for bare ground is zero. For a poor stand of grass the LAI could
approach 1.0; for a fair stand of grass, 2.0; for a good stand of grass, 3.5; and
for an excellent stand of grass, 5.0. The LAI for dense stands of trees and
shrubbery would also approach 5. The program is largely insensitive to values
13
-------
above 5. If the vegetative species limit plant transpiration (such as succulent
plants), the maximum LAI value should be reduced to a value equivalent of the
LAI for a stand of grass that would yield a similar quantity of plant transpiration.
Most landfills would tend to have, at best, a fair stand of grass and often only a
poor stand of grass because landfills are not designed as ideal support systems for
vegetative growth. Surface soils are commonly shallow and provide little
moisture storage for dry periods. Many covers may have drains to remove
infiltrated water quickly, reducing moisture storage. Some covers have liners
near the surface restricting root penetration and causing frequent saturation of the
surface soil which limits oxygen availability to the roots. Some landfills produce
large quantities of gas which, if uncontrolled, reduces the oxygen availability in
the rooting zone and therefore limits plant growth.
• Dates starting and ending the growing season. The start of the growing season
is based on mean daily temperature and plant species. Typically, the start of the
growing season for grasses is the Julian date (day of the year) when the normal
mean daily temperature rises above 50 to 55 degrees Fahrenheit. The growing
season ends when the normal mean daily temperatures falls below 50 to 55
degrees Fahrenheit. In cooler climates the start and end would be at lower
temperatures and in warmer climates at higher temperatures. Data on normal
mean daily temperature is available from "Climates of the States" (Ruffner, 1985)
and the "Climatic Atlas of the United States" (NOAA, 1974). In locations where
the growing season extends year-round, the start of the growing season should be
reported as day 0 and the end as, day 367. The values for the growing season
should be checked carefully to agree with the germination and harvesting (end of
seasonal growth) dates for your type of vegetation. For example, grasses in
southern California would germinate in the fall when the rains occur and die in
late spring when the soil moisture is depleted. This contrasts with a typical
growing season which would start in the spring and end in the fall.
• Normal average annual wind speed. This data is available from NOAA annual
climatological data summary, "Climates of the States" (Ruffner, 1985) and the
"Climatic Atlas of the United States" (NOAA, 1974).
• Normal average quarterly relative humidity. This data is available from
NOAA annual climatological data summary, "Climates of the States" (Ruffner,
1985) and the "Climatic Atlas of the United States" (NOAA, 1974).
3.2.2 Precipitation Data
1. Default Precipitation Option (Customary Units). The user may select 5 years of
historical precipitation data for any of the 102 U.S. cities listed in Table 2. The
input needed for this option is:
14
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TABLE 2. CITIES FOR DEFAULT HISTORICAL PRECIPITATION DATA
ALASKA
Annette
Bethel
Fairbanks
ARIZONA
Flagstaff
Phoenix.
Tucson
ARKANSAS
Little Rock
CALIFORNIA
Fresno
Los Angeles
Sacramento
San Diego
Santa Maria
COLORADO
Denver
Grand Junction
CONNECTICUT
Bridgeport
Hartford
New Haven
FLORIDA
Jacksonville
Miami
Orlando
Tallahassee
Tampa
West Palm Beach
GEORGIA
Atlanta
Watkinsville
HAWAII
Honolulu
IDAHO
Boise
Pocatello
ILLINOIS
Chicago
East St. Louis
INDIANA
Indianapolis
IOWA
Des Moines
KANSAS
Dodge City
Topeka
KENTUCKY
Lexington
LOUISIANA
Lake Charles
New Orleans
Shreveport
MAINE
Augusta
Bangor
Caribou
Portland
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston
Plainfield
Worcester
MICHIGAN
East Lansing
Sault Sainte Marie
MINNESOTA
St. Cloud
MISSOURI
Columbia
MONTANA
Glasgow
Great Falls
NEBRASKA
Grand Island
North Omaha
NEVADA
Ely
Las Vegas
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord
Nashua
NEW JERSEY
Edison
Seabrook
NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque
NEW YORK
Albany
Central Park
Ithaca
New York
Syracuse
NORTH CAROLINA
Greensboro
NORTH DAKOTA
Bismarck
OHIO
Cincinnati
Cleveland
Columbus
Put-in-Bay
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma City
Tulsa
OREGON
Astoria
Medford
Portland
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
RHODE ISLAND
Providence
SOUTH CAROLINA
Charleston
SOUTH DAKOTA
Rapid City
TENNESSEE
Knoxville
Nashville
TEXAS
Brownsville
Dallas
El Paso
Midland
San Antonio
UTAH
Cedar City
Salt Lake City
VERMONT
Burlington
Montpelier
Rutland
VIRGINIA
Lynchburg
Norfolk
WASHINGTON
Pullman
Seattle
Yakima
WISCONSIN
Madison
WYOMING
Cheyenne
Lander
PUERTO RICO
San Juan
15
-------
• Location
NOTE: The user should be aware of the limitations of using the default historical
precipitation data. None of the 102 locations for which data are available may
be representative of the study site because rainfall is spatially very variable. In
addition, the 5 years for which default data are available (1974-1978 in most
cases) may not be typical, but were unusually wet or dry. The user should
examine the rainfall and determine how representative it is of normal, wet and
dry years at the study site. In addition, simulations should be run for more than
five years to determine long-term performance of the landfill using, if necessary,
another precipitation input option to examine the design under the range of
possible weather conditions.
2. Synthetic Precipitation Option (Customary or Metric Units). The program will
generate from 1 to 100 years of daily precipitation data stochastically for the selected
location using a synthetic weather generator. The precipitation data will have
approximately the same statistical characteristics as the historic data at the selected
location. If desired, the user can enter normal mean monthly precipitation values for
the specific location to improve the statistical characteristics of the resulting daily
values. The user is advised to enter normal mean monthly precipitation values if the
project site is located more than a few miles from the city selected from Table 3 or
if the land use or topography varies between the site and city. The daily values will
vary from month to month and from year to year and will not equal the normal
values entered. The same data is produced every time the option is used for a given
location. The data required by the synthetic weather generator are:
• Location (select from a list of 139 U.S. cities in Table 3)
• Number of years of data to be generated
• Normal mean monthly precipitation (Optional, default values are available.)
3. Create/Edit Precipitation Option (Customary or Metric Units). Under the Create
option, the user may enter from 1 to 100 years of daily precipitation data manually.
The years, which need not be consecutive, can be entered in any order. The user
may add or delete years of data or rearrange the order of the years of data. This
same option can be used to edit the daily values of any year of data; commonly, this
is used to add severe storm events, such as the 25-year, 24-hour precipitation event.
The data required are:
• Location
• One or more years of daily precipitation data
16
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TABLES. CITIES FOR SYNTHETIC PRECIPITATION DATA
ALABAMA
Birmingham
Mobile
Montgomery
ARIZONA
Flagstaff
Phoenix
Yuma
ARKANSAS
Fort Smith
Little Rock
CALIFORNIA
Bakers field
Blue Canyon
Eureka
Fresno
Mt. Shasta
San Diego
San Francisco
COLORADO
Colorado Springs
Denver
Grand Junction
Pueblo
CONNECTICUT
Windsor Locks
DELAWARE
Wilmington
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
Washington
FLORIDA
Jacksonville
Miami
Tallahassee
Tampa
GEORGIA
Atlanta
Augusta
Macon
Savannah
IDAHO
Boise
Pocatello
ILLINOIS
Chicago
INDIANA
Evansville
Fort Wayne
Indianapolis
IOWA
Des Moines
Dubuque
KANSAS
Dodge City
Topeka
Wichita
KENTUCKY
Covington
Lexington
Louisville
LOUISIANA
Baton Rouge
New Orleans
Shreveport
MAINE
Caribou
Portland
MARYLAND
Baltimore
MASSACHUSETTS
Boston
Nantucket
MICHIGAN
Detroit
Grand Rapids
MINNESOTA
Duluth
Minneapolis
MISSISSIPPI
Jackson
Meridian
MISSOURI
Columbia
Kansas City
St. Louis
MONTANA
Billings
Great Falls
Havre
Helena
Kalispell
Miles City
NEBRASKA
Grand Island
North Pktte
Scottsbluff
NEVADA
Elko
Las Vegas
Reno
Winnemucca
NEW HAMPSHIRE
Concord
Mt. Washington
NEW JERSEY
Newark
NEW MEXICO
Albuquerque
Roswell
NEW YORK
Albany
Buffalo
New York
Syracuse
NORTH CAROLINA
Asheville
Charlotte
Greensboro
Raleigh
NORTH DAKOTA
Bismarck
Williston
OHIO
Cleveland
Columbus
Toledo
OKLAHOMA
Oklahoma City
Tulsa
OREGON
Bums
Meachem
Medford
Pendleton
Portland
Salem
Sexton Summit
PENNSYLVANIA
Philadelphia
Pittsburgh
RHODE ISLAND
Providence
SOUTH CAROLINA
Charleston
Columbia
SOUTH DAKOTA
Huron
Rapid Chy
TENNESSEE
Chattanooga
Knoxville
Memphis
Nashville
TEXAS
Abilene
Amarillo
Austin
Brownsville
Corpus Christi
Dallas
El Paso
Galveston
Houston
San Antonio
Temple
Waco
UTAH
Milford
Salt Lake City
VIRGINIA
Norfolk
Richmond
WASHINGTON
Olympia
Spokane
Stampede Pass
Walla Walla
Yakima
WEST VIRGINIA
Charleston
WISCONSIN
Green Bay
Lacrosse
Madison
Milwaukee
WYOMING
Cheyenne
17
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4. NOAA Tape Precipitation Option (Customary Units). The option will convert
the NOAA Summary of Day daily precipitation data written to diskette in ASCII
print as-on-tape format into the format used by Version 3 of the HELP model.
The following data are required for this option:
• Location
• NOAA ASCII print file of Summary of Day daily precipitation data in
as-on-tape format
NOTE: Daily precipitation data and normal mean monthly precipitation values
for most locations are readily available in publications or on diskette from
NOAA. Information on climatological data sources can be obtained from the
National Climatic Data Center (NCDC), NOAA, Federal Building, Asheville,
NC 28801, (704) 259-0682.
5. CKmatedata™ Precipitation Option (Customary Units). The program will convert
daily precipitation data from an ASCII print file prepared by the Climatedata™
CD-ROM data base program into the format used by Version 3 of the HELP
model. The Climatedata™ format is used by other CD-ROM, state and regional
data bases and, therefore, those files can also be converted by this option. For
example, the State of California and the Midwest Climatic Data Consortium used
this same format. The following data are required for this option:
• Location
• Climatedata™ prepared file containing daily precipitation data
NOTE: Hydrosphere Data Products, Inc. sells NOAA Summary of the Day
precipitation data in a 4-disc CD-ROM data base called Climatedata™, one disc
for each of four U.S. regions. Information on Climatedata™ is available from
Hydrosphere, 1002 Walnut, Suite 200, Boulder, CO 80302, (800) 949-4937.
6. ASCII Precipitation Option (Customary or Metric Units). The HELP model
converts daily precipitation data in an ASCII file to the HELP format. Each year
of ASCII precipitation data should be stored in a separate file. The first 365 or
366 values will be converted; excess data will be ignored. Inadequate data will
yield an error. This option should also be used to convert data from spreadsheet
format by first printing each year of precipitation to individual print files. The
following data are required for this option:
• Location
• Files containing ASCII data
18
-------
• Years
7. HELP Version 2 Data Option (Customary Units). Version 3 of the HELP model
converts precipitation data prepared for use in Version 2 of the HELP model
(Schroeder et al., 1988b) into the HELP Version 3 format. This option requires
the following data:
• Location
• File containing HELP Version 2 data
8. Canadian Climatological Data Option (Metric Units). The HELP model
converts Canadian Climatological Data (Surface) in compressed or uncompressed
diskette formats into the HELP Version 3 format. The following data are required
by this option:
• Location
• Canadian Climatological Data file containing years of daily precipitation values
NOTE: Canadian Climatological Data for most locations are readily available
in publications of the Environment Canada, Atmospheric Environment Service,
Canadian Climate Centre, Data Management Division, 4905 Dufferin Street,
Downsview, Ontario, Canada M3H 5T4.
3.2.3 Temperature Data
1. Synthetic Temperature Option (Customary or Metric Units). The program will
generate from 1 to 100 years of temperature data stochastically for the selected
location. The synthetic generation of daily temperature values is a weak function
of precipitation and as such the user must first specify the precipitation.
Generation of temperature data is limited to the number of years of precipitation
data available. The synthetic temperature data will have approximately the same
statistical characteristics as the historic data at the selected location. If desired,
the user can enter normal mean monthly temperature values for the specific
location to improve the statistical characteristics of the resulting daily values. The
user is advised to enter normal mean monthly temperature values if the project site
is located more than 100 miles from the city selected from Table 1 or if the
difference in elevation between the site and the city is more than 500 feet. The
data required by the synthetic weather generator are:
• Location (select from a list of 183 U.S. cities in Table 1)
• Number of years of data to be generated
19
-------
• Years of daily precipitation values
• Normal mean monthly temperature (Optional, default values are available.)
2. Create/Edit Temperature Option (Customary or Metric Units). Under the create
option, the user may enter up to 100 years of daily temperature data manually.
The years, which need not be consecutive, can be entered in any order. The user
may add or delete years of data or rearrange the order of the years of data. This
same option can be used to edit the daily values of any year of data. The data
required are:
• Location
• One or more years of daily temperature data
3. NOAA Tape Temperature Option (Customary Units). This option will convert
the NOAA Summary of Day daily temperature data written to diskette in ASCII
print as-on-tape format into the format used by Version 3 of the HELP model.
The program will accept either mean daily temperature or daily maximum and
minimum temperature values. If maximum and minimum temperatures are used,
the program averages the two to compute the daily mean temperature value. If
mean temperature values are used, the same file is specified as the maximum and
minimum temperature files. The following data are required for this option:
• Location
• NOAA ASCII print file of Summary of Day data file containing years of daily
maximum temperature values or daily mean temperature values in as-on-tape
format
• NOAA ASCII print file of Summary of Day data file containing years of daily
minimum temperature values or daily mean temperature values in as-on-tape
format
NOTE: Daily temperature (mean or maximum and minimum) data and normal
mean monthly temperature values for most locations are readily available in
publications or on diskette from NOAA. Information on climatological data
sources can be obtained from the National Climatic Data Center, NOAA,
Federal Building, Asheville, NC 28801, (704) 259-0682.
4. Climatedata"' Temperature Option (Customary Units). The program will convert
daily maximum and minimum temperature data from ASCII print files prepared by
the Climatedata™ CD-ROM data base program into the daily mean temperature
data file format used by Version 3 of the HELP model. The Climatedata™ format
is also used by other CD-ROM, state and regional data bases and therefore those
20
-------
files can also be converted by this option. For example, the State of California
and the Midwest Climatic Data Consortium used this same format. The following
data are required for this option:
• Location
• Climatedata™ prepared file containing daily maximum temperature data
• Climatedata™ prepared file containing daily minimum temperature data
NOTE: Hydrosphere Data Products, Inc. sells NOAA Summary of the Day
daily temperature data in a 4-disc CD-ROM data base called Climatedata™,
one disc for each of four U.S. regions. Information on Climatedata™ is
available from Hydrosphere, 1002 Walnut, Suite 200, Boulder, CO 80302,
(800) 949-4937.
5. ASCII Temperature Option (Customary or Metric Units). The HELP model
converts daily mean temperature data in an ASCII file to the HELP format. Each
year of ASCII temperature data should be stored in a separate file. The program
will convert the first 365 or 366 values; excess data will be ignored. Inadequate
data will yield an error. This option should also be used to convert data from
spreadsheet format by first printing each year of temperature to individual print
files. The following data are required for this option: ,
• Location
• Files containing ASCII data
• Years
6. HELP Version 2 Data Option (Customary Units). Version 3 of the HELP model
converts temperature data prepared for use in Version 2 of the HELP model
(Schroeder et al., 1988b) into the HELP Version 3 format. This option requires
the following data:
• Location
• File containing HELP Version 2 data
7. Canadian Climatological Data Option (Metric Units). The HELP model
converts Canadian Climatological Data (Surface) in compressed or uncompressed
diskette formats into the HELP Version 3 format. Conversion is available only
for daily mean temperature values. The following data are required by this
option:
21
-------
• Location
• Canadian Climatological Data file containing years of daily mean temperature
values
NOTE: Canadian Climatological Data for most locations are readily available
in publications of the Environment Canada, Atmospheric Environment Service,
Canadian Climate Centre, Data Management Division, 4905 Dufferin Street,
Downsview, Ontario, Canada M3H 5T4.
3.2.4 Solar Radiation Data
1. Synthetic Solar Radiation Option (Customary or Metric Units). The program will
generate from 1 to 100 years of daily solar radiation data stochastically for the
selected location. The synthetic generation of daily solar radiation values is a
strong function of precipitation and as such the user must first specify the
precipitation. Generation of solar radiation data is limited to the number of years
of precipitation data available. The synthetic solar radiation data will have
approximately the same statistical characteristics as the historic data at the selected
location. If desired, the user can enter the latitude for the specific location to
improve the computation of potential solar radiation and the resulting daily values.
The user is advised to enter the latitude if the project site is more than 50 miles
north or south of the city selected from Table 1. The data required by the
synthetic weather generator are:
• Location (select from a list of 183 U.S. cities in Table 1)
• Number of years of data to be generated
• Years of daily precipitation values
• Latitude (optional, default value is available.)
2. Create/Edit Solar Radiation Option (Customary or Metric Units). Under the
create option, the user may enter up to 100 years of daily solar radiation data
manually. The years, which need not be consecutive, can be entered in any
order. The user may add or delete years of data or rearrange the order of the
years of data. This same option can be used to edit the daily values of any year
of data. The input requirements are:
• Location
• One or more years of daily solar radiation data
22
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3. NOAA Tape Solar Radiation Option (Customary Units). This option will convert
the NOAA Surface Airways Hourly solar radiation data written to diskette in
ASCH print as-on-tape format into the format used by Version 3 of the HELP
model. The following data are required for this option:
• Location
• NOAA ASCII print file of Surface Airways Hourly solar radiation data in
as-on-tape format
NOTE: Daily temperature (mean or maximum and minimum) data and normal
mean monthly temperature values for most locations are readily available in
publications or on diskette from the NOAA. Information on climatological
data sources can be obtained from the National Climatic Data Center, NOAA,
Federal Building, Asheville, NC 28801, (704) 259-0682.
4. Climatedata™ Solar Radiation Option (Customary Units). The program will
convert the Surface Airways ASCII print files of daily average solar radiation data
into a daily solar radiation data file of the format used by HELP Version 3. It is
anticipated that this option may also work with some other data sources as they
become available. The following data are required for this option:
• Location
• Surface Airways prepared file containing years of daily solar radiation data
NOTE: Earthlnfo Inc. sells NOAA Surface Airways daily global solar
radiation data in a 12-disc CD-ROM data base called Surface Airways as part
of their NOAA data base, three discs for each of four U.S. regions.
Information on Surface Airways is available from Earthlnfo Inc., 5541 Central
Avenue, Boulder, CO 80301-2846, (303) 938-1788. Hydrosphere Inc. is also
developing a CD-ROM data base of NOAA Surface Airways data as part of
their Climatedata™. Information on Climatedata™ is available from
Hydrosphere, 1002 Walnut, Suite 200, Boulder, CO 80302, (800) 949-4937.
5. ASCII Solar Radiation Option (Customary or Metric Units). The HELP model
converts daily solar radiation data in an ASCII file to the HELP format. Each
year of ASCII daily solar radiation data should be stored in a separate file. The
program will convert the first 365 or 366 values; excess data will be ignored.
Inadequate data will yield an error. This option should also be used to convert
data from spreadsheet format by first printing each year of solar radiation to
individual print files. The following data are required for this option:
• Location
23
-------
• Files containing ASCII data
• Years
6. HELP Version 2 Data Option (Customary Units). Version 3 of the HELP model
converts solar radiation data prepared for use in Version 2 of the HELP model
(Schroeder et al., 1988b) into the HELP Version 3 format. This option requires
the following data:
• Location
• File containing HELP Version 2 data
7. Canadian Climatological Data Option (Metric Units). The HELP model
converts Canadian Climatological Data (Surface) in compressed or uncompressed
diskette formats into the HELP Version 3 format. Conversion is available only
for hourly global solar radiation values. The input requirements are:
• Location
• Canadian Climatological Data file containing years of hourly global solar
radiation values
NOTE: Canadian Climatological Data for most locations are readily available
in publications of the Environment Canada, Atmospheric Environment Service,
Canadian Climate Centre, Data Management Division, 4905 Dufferin Street,
Downsview, Ontario, Canada M3H 5T4.
3.3 SOIL AND DESIGN DATA REQUIREMENTS
The user may enter soil data by using the default soil/material textures option, the
user-defined soil texture option, or a manual option. If the user selects a default soil
texture, the program will display porosity, field capacity, wilting point, and hydraulic
conductivity values of the soil that is stored as default. There are 42 default soil/material
textures. If user-defined soil textures are selected, the program will display the porosity,
field capacity, wilting point, and hydraulic conductivity of the selected soil from the user-
defined soil texture data file. In the manual soil texture option, the user must specify
values for the soil parameters. General data requirements for all options are listed
below. Detailed explanations are given in Sections 3.4 through 3.9.
3.3.1 Landfill General Information
1. Project title
24
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2. Landfill area (Customary or Metric)
3. Percentage of landfill area where runoff is possible
4. Method of initialization of moisture storage (user-specified or program initialized to
near steady-state)
5. Initial snow water storage (optional, needed when moisture storage is user-specified)
3.3.2 Layer Data
1. Layer type (Four types of layers are permitted -- 1) vertical percolation, 2) lateral
drainage, 3) barrier soil liner and 4) geomembrane liner.)
2. Layer thickness (Customary or Metric)
3. Soil texture
• Select from 42 default soil/material textures to get the following data.
Porosity, in vol/vol
Field capacity, in vol/vol
Wilting point, in vol/vol
Saturated hydraulic conductivity (cm/sec)
• Select from user-built soil texture library to get the following data.
Porosity, in vol/vol
Field capacity, in vol/vol
Wilting point, m vol/vol
Saturated hydraulic conductivity (cm/sec)
• Enter the following data for manual soil texture descriptions-
Porosity, in vol/vol
Field capacity, in vol/vol
Wilting point, in vol/vol
Saturated hydraulic conductivity (cm/see)
4. Initial volumetric soil water content (storage), in vol/vol (optional, needed when
initial moisture storage is user-sjpiecified)
5, Rate of subsurface inflow to layer (Customary or Metric)
3.3.3 Lateral Drainage Layer Design Data
25
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1. Maximum drainage length (Customary or Metric)
2. Drain slope, percent
3. Percentage of leachate collected from drainage layer that is recirculated
4. Layer to receive recirculated leachate from drainage layer
3.3.4 Geomembrane Liner Data
1. Pinhole density in geomembrane liner (Customary or Metric)
2. Geomembrane liner installation defects (Customary or Metric)
3. Geomembrane liner placement quality (six available options)
4. Geomembrane liner saturated hydraulic conductivity (vapor diffusivity), cm/sec
5. Geotextile transmissivity, cmVsec (optional, when placed with geomembrane)
3.3.5 Runoff Curve Number Information
Three methods are available to define a SCS AMC II runoff curve number.
1. User-specified curve number used without modification
2. User-specified curve number modified for surface slope and slope length
3. Curve number computed by HELP program based on surface slope, slope length,
default soil texture, and quantity of vegetative cover
3.4 LANDFILL PROFILE AND LAYER DESCRIPTIONS
The HELP program may be used to model landfills with up to twenty layers of
materials — soils, geosynthetics, wastes or other materials. Figure 1 shows a typical
landfill profile with eleven layers. The program recognizes four general types of layers.
1. Vertical percolation layers
2. Lateral drainage layers
3. Barrier soil liners
26
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4. Geomembrane liners
It must be noted that correct classification of layers is very important because the
program models the flow of water through the four types of layers in different ways.
Flow in a vertical percolation layer (e.g., Layers 1 and 5 in Figure 1) is by
unsaturated vertical drainage downward due to gravity drainage; upward flux due to
evapotranspiration is modeled as an extraction. The rate of gravity drainage (percolation)
in a vertical percolation layer is a function of soil moisture and soil parameters. The
saturated hydraulic conductivity specified for a vertical percolation layer should be in the
vertical direction for anisotropic materials. The main role of a vertical percolation layer
is to provide moisture storage. Waste layers and layers designed to support vegetation
and provide evaporative storage are normally designated as vertical percolation layers.
Lateral drainage layers (e.g., Layers 2, 6, 7 and 9 in Figure 1) are layers directly
above liners that are designed to promote drainage laterally to a collection and removal
system. Vertical flow in a lateral drainage layer is modeled in the same manner as a
vertical percolation layer, but saturated lateral drainage is allowed. The saturated
hydraulic conductivity specified for a lateral drainage layer should be in the lateral
direction (downslope) for anisotropic materials. A lateral drainage layer may be
underlain by only another lateral drainage layer or a liner. The drainage slope specified
for a lateral drainage should be the slope of the surface of the liner underlying the
drainage layer in the direction of flow (the maximum gradient for a section of liner in
a single plane) and may range from 0 to 50 percent. The drainage length specified for
a lateral drainage layer is the length of the horizontal projection of a representative flow
path from the crest to the collector rather than the distance along the slope. For slopes
of less than 10 percent, the difference is negligible. The drainage length must be greater
than zero but does not have a practical upper limit. Recirculatiori is permitted from
lateral drainage layers directly above a liner where 0 to 100 percent of the drainage
collected can be recirculated and redistributed in a user-specified vertical percolation or
lateral drainage layer.
Barrier soil liners (e.g., Layers 4, and 11 in Figure 1) are intended to restrict vertical
drainage (percolation/leakage). These layers should have saturated hydraulic
conductivities substantially lower than those of the other types of layers. Liners are
assumed to be saturated at all times but leak only when there is a positive head on the
top surface of the liner. The percolation rate depends upon the depth of water-saturated
soil (head) above the base of the liner, the thickness of the liner and the saturated
hydraulic conductivity. The saturated hydraulic conductivity specified for a barrier soil
liner should be its value for passing the expected permeant in the vertical direction for
anisotropic materials. The program allows only downward saturated flow in barrier soil
liners. Evapotranspiration and lateral drainage are not permitted from a liner; Thus, any
water moving into a liner will eventually percolate through the liner. In Version 3
composite liners are modeled as two layers ~ a geomembrane liner and a barrier soil
liner as shown in Figure 1.
27
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Geomembrane liners (e.g., Layers 3, 8 and 10 in Figure 1) are virtually impermeable
synthetic membranes that reduce the area of vertical drainage/percolation/leakage to a
very small fraction of the area located near manufacturing flaws and installation defects
(punctures, tears and faulty seaming). A small quantity of vapor transport across the
membrane also occurs and can be modeled by specifying the vapor diffusivity as the
saturated hydraulic conductivity of the geomembrane. Geomembranes leak only when
there is a positive head on the top surface of the liner. The leakage rate depends on the
depth of saturated soil (head) above the liner, the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the
drainage limiting soil layer adjacent to the membrane, the contact between the membrane
and the adjacent drainage limiting soil layer, geomembrane properties and the size and
number of holes in the geomembrane liner. Aging of geomembranes is not considered.
While the HELP program is quite flexible, there are some basic rules that must be
followed regarding the arrangement of layers in the profile.
1. A vertical percolation layer may not be underlying a lateral drainage layer.
2. A barrier soil liner may not be underlying another barrier soil liner.
3. A geomembrane liner may not be placed directly between two barrier soil liners.
4. A geomembrane liner may not be underlying another geomembrane liner.
5. A barrier soil liner may not be placed directly between two geomembrane liners.
6. When a barrier soil liner or a geomembrane liner is not placed directly below the
lowest drainage layer, all drainage layers below the lowest liner are treated as
vertical percolation layers. Thus, no lateral drainage is computed for the bottom
section of the landfill.
7.
8.
The top layer may not be a barrier soil liner.
The top layer may not be a geomembrane liner.
9. The profile can contain no more than a total of five barrier soil liners and
geomembrane liners.
The HELP model does not permit two barrier soil liners to be adjacent to each other.
If a design has two soil layers adjacent to each other that would be expected to act as a
single liner and both soils will remain nearly saturated and contribute significantly to the
head loss and restriction of vertical drainage, then the thickness of the two layers should
be summed and an effective saturated hydraulic conductivity should be computed for the
combined liner. The effective saturated hydraulic conductivity should be computed as
follows:
28
-------
n T
Ł —
Z-f f
(1)
where
n =
effective saturated hydraulic conductivity of combined liner
effective thickness of combined liner
thickness of liner soil i
saturated hydraulic conductivity of liner soil i
number of liner soils in the combined liner
For computational purposes, the soil profile is partitioned into subprofiles.
Subprofiles are defined in relation to the location of the liners. The first (top) subprofile
shown on Figure 1 extends from the landfill surface to the bottom of the highest liner
system (bottom of the composite liner, Layer 4) upper barrier soil layer. The second
subprofile extends from the top of the layer (Layer 5) below the bottom of the first liner
system to the base of the second liner system (Layer 8). The third (bottom) subprofile
extends from the top of the layer below the second liner system (the leakage detection
drainage layer, Layer 9) to the base of the lowest liner (Layer 11). The program allows
up to five liner systems and, therefore, five subprofiles plus an additional subprofile of
vertical percolation layers below the bottom liner system. The program models the flow
of water through one subprofile at a time from top to bottom, with the percolation or
leakage from one subprofile serving as the inflow to the underlying subprofile.
3.5 SOIL CHARACTERISTICS
The user can assign soil characteristics to a layer using the default option, the user
defined soil option, or the manual option. Table 4 shows the default characteristics for
42 soil/material types. The soil texture types are classified according to two standard
systems, the U.S. Department of Agriculture textural classification system and the
Unified Soil Classification System. The default characteristics of types 1 through 15 are
typical of surficial and disturbed agricultural soils, which may be less consolidated and
more aerated than soils typically placed in landfills (Breazeale and McGeorge, 1949;
England, 1970; Lutton et al., 1979; Rawls et al., 1982). Clays and silts in landfills
would generally be compacted except within the vegetative layer, which might be tilled
to promote vegetative growth. Untilled vegetative layers may be more compacted than
the loams listed in Table 4. Soil texture types 22 through 29 are compacted soils. Type
18 is representative of typical municipal solid waste that has been compacted; type 19 is
the same waste but it accounts for 65 percent of the waste being in dead zones not
contributing to drainage and storage. Soil types 16 and 17 denote very well compacted
clay soils that might be used for barrier soil liners. The user assigns default soil
characteristics to a layer by specifying the appropriate number for the material type. The
29
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TABLE 4. DEFAULT SOIL, WASTE, AND GEOSYNTHETIC CHARACTERISTICS
Classification
HELP
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
USDA
CoS
S
FS
LS
LFS
SL
FSL
L
SiL
SCL
CL
SiCL
SC
SiC
C
uses
SP
SW
SW
SM
SM
SM
SM
ML
ML
SC
CL
CL
SC
CH
CH
Barrier Soil
Bentonite Mat (0.6 cm)
Municipal Waste
(9001b/yd3or312kg/m3)
Municipal Waste
(channeling and dead zones)
Drainage Net (0.5 cm)
Gravel
L'
SiL*
SO-'
CL'
SiCL*
SC*
SiC*
C*
ML
ML
SC
CL
CL
SC
CH
CH
Coal-Burning Electric Plant
Fly Ash*
Coal-Burning Electric Plant
Bottom Ash*
Municipal Incinerator
Fly Ash*
Fine Copper Slag*
Drainage Net (0.6 cm)
Total
Porosity
vol/vol
0.417
0.437
0.457
0.437
0.457
0.453
0.473
0.463
0.501
0398
0.464
0.471
0.430
0.479
0.475
0.427
0.750
0.671
0.168
0.850
0397
0.419
0.461
0365
0.437
0.445
0.400
0.452
0.451
0.541
0.578
0.450
0375
0.850
Field
Capacity
vol/vol
0.045
0.062
0.083
0.105
0.131
0.190
0.222
0.232
0.284
0.244
0310
0342
0321
0371
0378
0.418
0.747
0.292
0.073
0.010
0.032
0307
0360
0305
0373
0393
0366
0.411
0.419
0.187
0.076
0.116
0.055
0.010
Wilting
Point
vol/vol
0.018
0.024
0.033
0.047
0.058
0.085
0.104
0.116
0.135
0.136
0.187
0.210
0.221
0.251
0.265
0367
0.400
0.077
0.019
0.005
0.013
0.180
0.203
0.202
0.266
0577
0588
0311
0332
0.047
0.025
0.049
0.020
0.005
Saturated
Hydraulic
Conductivity
cm/sec
l.OxlO'2
5.8xlO3
3.1xlO-3
IJxlO3
l.OxlO3
7.2x10"
5.2x10"
3.7x10"
1.9x10"
1.2x10"
6.4xlO5
4.2xlO5
33xl(r3
2.5xlO-5
IJxlO3
i.oxio'
3.0xl(r9
LOxlO'3
LOxlO3
LOxlO*'
3.0x10-'
1.9xlO-5
9.0x10*
2.7x10"
3.6xlO«
1.9X106
7.8xlO7
1.2x10*
6.8xlO7
5.0xlO5
4.1xlO3
LOxlO2
4.1xlO2
33x10*'
Moderately Compacted
(Continued)
30
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TABLE 4 (continued). DEFAULT SOIL, WASTE, AND GEOSYNTHETIC
CHARACTERISTICS
Classification
HELP
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
Geomembrane Material
High Density Polyethylene
(HOPE)
Low Density Polyethylene
(LDPE)
Polyvinyl Chloride (PVC)
Butyl Rubber
Chlorinated Polyethylene
(CPE)
Hypalon or Chlorosulfonated
Polyethylene (CSPE)
Ethylene-Propylene Diene
Monomer (EPDM)
Neoprene
Total
Porosity
vol/vol
Field
Capacity
vol/vol
Wilting
Point
vol/vol
Saturated
Hydraulic
Conductivity
cm/sec
2.0xlO-M
4.0x10-"
2.0x10-"
l.OxlO-'2
4.0xlO-12
3.0xlO-12
2.0xlO'12
3.0xlO-12
(concluded)
user-defined soil option accepts non-default soil characteristics for layers assigned soil
type numbers greater than 42. This is especially convenient for specifying characteristics
of waste layers. User-specified soil characteristics can be assigned any soil type number
greater than 42.
When a default soil type is used to describe the top soil layer, the program adjusts
the saturated hydraulic conductivities of the soils in the top half of the evaporative zone
for the effects of root channels. The saturated hydraulic conductivity value is multiplied
by an empirical factor that is computed as a function of the user-specified maximum leaf
area index. Example values of this factor are 1.0 for a maximum LAI of 0 (bare
ground), 1.8 for a maximum LAI of 1 (poor stand of grass), 3.0 for a maximum LAI of
2 (fair stand of grass), 4.2 for a maximum LAI of 3.3 (good stand of grass) and 5.0 for
a maximum LAI of 5 (excellent stand of grass).
The manual option requires values for porosity, field capacity, wilting point, and
saturated hydraulic conductivity. These and related soil properties are defined below.
Soil Water Storage (Volumetric Content): the ratio of the volume of water in a soil
to the total volume occupied by the soil, water and voids.
Total Porosity: the soil water storage/volumetric content at saturation (fraction of
total volume).
31
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Field Capacity: the soil water storage/volumetric content after a prolonged period
of gravity drainage from saturation corresponding to the soil water storage when
a soil exerts a soil suction of 1/3 bar.
Wilting Point: the lowest soil water storage/volumetric content that can be achieved
by plant transpiration or air-drying, that is the moisture content where a plant will
be permanently wilted corresponding to the soil water storage when a soil exerts
a soil suction of 15 bars.
Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity: the rate at which water drains through a saturated
soil under a unit pressure gradient.
Porosity, field capacity and wilting point are all dimensionless numbers between 0
and 1. Porosity must be greater than field capacity, which in turn must be greater than
the wilting point. The wilting point must be greater than zero. The values for porosity,
field capacity and wilting point are not used for liners, except for initializing the soil
water storage of liners to the porosity value.
The soil moisture retention properties of a layer should be adjusted downward if
some volume of the layer does not participate in the drainage and storage of infiltrated
water. This condition commonly exists in shallow layers of municipal solid waste
because municipal solid waste is very heterogeneous and poorly compacted. The plastics
in the waste also channels the drainage, limits the spreading of infiltration, and restricts
the wetting of the waste and, therefore, the storage. Default soil texture number 19
provides adjusted retention values for a municipal solid waste with significant channeling;
it assumes that only 25 percent of the volume is actively involved in drainage and storage
of infiltration. As the values were computed by multiplying the values for municipal
solid waste (default texture number 18) by 0.25; the initial soil water content would also
be multiply by 0.25.
The HELP user has the option of specifying the initial volumetric water storage
(content) of all layers except liners. Liners are assumed to remain saturated at all times.
If the user chooses not to specify initial water contents, the program estimates values
near steady-state and then runs one year of initialization to refine the estimates before
starting the simulation. The soil water contents at the end of this year of initialization
are taken as the initial values for the simulation period. The program then runs the
complete simulation, starting again from the beginning of the first year of data. The
results for the initialization period are not reported. To improve initialization to steady-
state moisture storage, the user should replace thick vertical percolation and lateral
drainage layers, that are below the evaporative zone and above the saturated zone above
liners, with thin layers. Then, run the simulation for a number of years until steady-state
is approximated. The final dimensionless water storage values after nearing steady-state
should then be specified as the initial water contents in your actual simulation using the
true dimensions of the layers.
32
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The initial moisture content of municipal solid waste is a function of the composition
of the waste; reported values for fresh wastes range from about 0.08 to 0.20 vol/vol.
The average value is about 0.12 vol/vol for compacted municipal solid waste. If using
default waste texture 19, where 75% of the volume is inactive, the initial moisture
content should be that of only the active portion, 25% of the values reported above.
The soil water storage or content used in the HELP model is on a per volume basis
(6), volume of water (Vw) per total (bulk-soil, water and air) soil volume (Vt = Vs + Vw
+ Va), which is characteristic of practice in agronomy and soil physics. Engineers more
commonly express moisture content on a per mass basis (w), mass of water (Mw) per
mass of soil (AQ. The two can be related to each other by knowing the dry bulk density
(Pdb), dry bulk specific gravity (T^) of the soil (ratio of dry bulk density to water density
GO), wet bulk density GO, wet bulk specific gravity (T^) of the soil (ratio of wet bulk
density to water density.
6 = w —— =
Pw
L
(2)
8 =
PH*
1 + W pv
I + W
(3)
3.6 GEOMEMBRANE CHARACTERISTICS
The user can assign geomembrane liner characteristics (vapor diffusivity/saturated
hydraulic conductivity) to a layer using the default option, the user-defined soil option,
or the manual option. Saturated hydraulic conductivity for geomembranes is defined in
terms of its equivalence to the vapor diffusivity. The porosity, field capacity, wilting
point and intial moisture content are not needed for geomembranes. Table 4 shows the
default characteristics for 12 geomembrane liners. The user assigns default soil
characteristics to a layer simply by specifying the appropriate geomembrane liner texture
number. The user-defined option accepts user specified geomembrane liner
characteristics for layers assigned textures greater than 42. Manual geomembrane liner
characteristics can be assigned any texture greater than 42.
Regardless of the method of specifying the geomembrane "soil" characteristics, the
program also requires values for geomembrane liner thickness, pinhole density,
installation defect density, geomembrane placement quality, and the transmissivity of
geotextiles separating geomembranes and drainage limiting soils. These parameters are
defined below.
33
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Pinhole Density: the number of defects (diameter of hole equal to or smaller than
the geomembrane thickness; hole estimated as 1 mm in diameter) in a given area
generally resulting from manufacturing flaws such as polymerization deficiencies.
Installation Defect Density: the number of defects (diameter of hole larger than the
geomembrane thickness; hole estimated as 1 cm2 in area) per acre resulting
primarily from seaming faults and punctures during installation.
Geotextile Transmissivity: the product of the in-plane saturated hydraulic conductivity
and thickness of the geotextile.
The density of pinholes and installation defects is a subject of speculation. Ideally,
geomembranes would not have any defects. If any were known to exist during
construction, the defects would be repaired. However, geomembranes are known to leak
and therefore reasonably conservative estimates of the defect densities should be specified
to determine the maximum probable leakage quantities.
The density of defects has been measured at a number of landfills and other facilities
and reported in the literature. These findings provide guidance for estimating the defect
densities. Typical geomembranes may have about 0.5 to 1 pinholes per acre (1 to 2
pinholes per hectare) from manufacturing defects. The density of installation defects is
a function of the quality of installation, testing, materials, surface preparation,
equipment, and QA/QC program. Representative installation defect densities as a
function of the quality of installation are given below for landfills being built today with
the state-of-the-art in materials, equipment and QA/QC. In the last column the frequency
of achieving a particular installation quality is given. The estimates are based on limited
data but are characteristic of the recommendations provided in the literature.
Installation
Quality
Excellent
Good
Fair
Poor
Defect Density
(number per acre)
Up to 1
1 to 4
4 to 10
10 to 20*
Frequency
(percent")
10
40
40
10
* Higher defect densities have been reported for older landfills with
poor installation operations and materials; however, these high
densities are not characteristic of modern practice.
The user must also enter the placement quality of the geomembrane liner if pinholes
or installation defects are reported. There are six different possible entries for the
geomembrane liner placement quality. The program selects which equation will be used
to compute the geomembrane based on the placement quality specified and the saturated
hydraulic conductivity of the lower permeability soil (drainage limiting soil) adjacent to
34
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the geomembrane. The program has different equations for three ranges of saturated
hydraulic conductivity: greater than or equal to 0.1 cm/sec; less than 0.1 and greater
than or equal to 0.0001 cm/sec; and less than 0.0001 cm/sec.
1. Perfect: Assumes perfect contact between geomembrane and adjacent soil that
limits drainage rate (no gap, "sprayed-on" seal between membrane and soil
formed in place).
2. Excellent: Assumes exceptional contact between geomembrane and adjacent soil
that limits drainage rate (typically achievable only in the lab or small field
lysimeters).
3. Good: Assumes good field installation with well-prepared, smooth soil surface
and geomembrane wrinkle control to insure good contact between
geomembrane and adjacent soil that limits drainage rate.
4. Poor: Assumes poor field installation with a less well-prepared soil surface
and/or geomembrane wrinkling providing poor contact between geomembrane
and adjacent soil that limits drainage rate, resulting in a larger gap for
spreading and greater leakage.
5. Worst Case: Assumes that contact between geomembrane and adjacent soil does
not limit drainage rate, resulting in a leakage rate controlled only by the hole.
6. Geotextile separating geomembrane liner and drainage limiting soil: Assumes
leakage spreading and rate is controlled by the in-plane transmissivity of the
geotextile separating the geomembrane and the adjacent soil layer that would
have otherwise limited the drainage. This quality would not normally be used
with a geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) as the controlling soil layer. Upon
wetting, the bentonite swells and extrudes into the geotextile, filling its voids
and reducing its transmissivity below the point where it can contribute
significantly to spreading of leakage. GCL's, when properly placed, tend to
have intimate contact with the geomembrane (Harpur et al., 1993).
3.7 SITE CHARACTERISTICS
The user must also supply a value of the Soil Conservation Service (SCS) runoff
curve number for Antecedent Moisture Condition H (AMC-II) or provide information so
that a curve number can be computed. Unlike Version 2 of the HELP model, Version
3 accounts for surface slope effects on curve number and runoff. In Version 3 of the
HELP model, there are three different options by which a curve number can be obtained.
1. A curve number defined by the user
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2. A curve number defined by the user and modified according to the surface slope
and slope length of the landfill
3. A curve number is computed by the HELP model based on landfill surface slope,
slope length, soil texture of the top layer, and the vegetative cover. Some general
guidance for selection of runoff curve numbers is provided in Figure 2 (USDA,
Soil Conservation Service, 1985).
Two of the options account for surface slope. The correlation between surface slope
conditions and curve number were developed for slopes ranging from 1 percent to as
high as 50 percent and for slope lengths ranging from 50 feet to 2000 feet.
3.8 OVERVIEW OF MODELING PROCEDURE
The hydrologic processes modeled by the program can be divided into two
categories: surface processes and subsurface processes. The surface processes modeled
are snowmelt, interception of rainfall by vegetation, surface runoff, and surface
evaporation. The subsurface processes modeled are evaporation from soil profile, plant
transpiration, unsaturated vertical drainage, barrier soil liner percolation, geomembrane
leakage and saturated lateral drainage.
100
SOIL TEXTURE NUMBER
Figure 2. Relation between SCS Curve Number and Default Soil Texture
Number for Various Levels of Vegetation
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Daily infiltration into the landfill is determined indirectly from a surface water
balance. Infiltration is assumed to equal the sum of rainfall, surface storage and
snowmelt, minus the sum of runoff, additional storage in snowpack and evaporation of
surface water. No liquid water is assumed to be held in surface storage from one day
to the next except in the snowpack or when the top soil is saturated and runoff is not
permitted. Each day, the free available water for infiltration, runoff, or evaporation
from water on the surface is determined from the surface storage, discharge from the
snowpack, and rainfall. Snowfall is added to the surface snow storage, which is depleted
by either evaporation or melting. Snowmelt is added to the free available water and is
treated as rainfall except that it is not intercepted by vegetation. The free available water
is used to compute the runoff by the SCS rainfall-runoff relationship. The interception
is the measure of water available to evaporate from the surface. Interception in excess
of the potential evaporation is added to infiltration. Surface evaporation is then
computed. Potential evaporation from the surface is first applied to the interception; any
excess is applied to the snowmelt, then to the snowpack and finally to the groundmelt.
Potential evaporation in excess of the evaporation from the surface is applied to the soil
column and plant transpiration. The snowmelt and rainfall that does not run off or
evaporate is assumed to infiltrate into the landfill along with any groundmelt that does
not evaporate.
The first subsurface processes considered are soil evaporation and plant transpiration
from the evaporative zone of the upper subprofile. A vegetative growth model accounts
for the daily growth and decay of the surface vegetation. The other subsurface processes
are modeled one subprofile at a time, from top to bottom, using a design-dependent time
step ranging from 30 minutes to 6 hours. A storage-routing procedure is used to
redistribute the soil water among the modeling segments that comprise the subprofile.
This procedure accounts for infiltration or percolation into the subprofile and
evapotranspiration from the evaporative zone. Then, if the subprofile contains a liner,
the program computes the head on the liner. The head on the liner is then used to
compute the leakage/percolation through the liner and, if lateral drainage is permitted
above the top of the liner, the lateral drainage to the collection and removal system.
3.9 ASSUMPTIONS AND LIMITATIONS
3.9.1 Solution Methods
The modeling procedures documented in the previous section are necessarily based
on many simplifying assumptions. Generally, these assumptions are reasonable and
consistent with the objectives of the program when applied to standard landfill designs.
However, some of these assumptions may not be reasonable for unusual designs. The
major assumptions and limitations of the program are summarized below.
Runoff is computed using the SCS method based on daily amounts of rainfall and
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snowmelt. The program assumes that areas adjacent to the landfill do not drain onto the
landfill. The time distribution of rainfall intensity is not considered. The program
cannot be expected to give accurate estimates of runoff volumes for individual storm
events on the basis of daily rainfall data. However, because the SCS rainfall-runoff
relation is based on considerable daily field data, long-term estimates of runoff should
be reasonable. The SCS method does not explicitly consider the length and slope of the
surface over which overland flow occurs. This limitation has been removed by
developing and implementing into the HELP input routine a procedure for computing
curve numbers that take into consideration the effect of slope and slope length. The
limitation, however, remains on the user specified curve number (the first method). This
limitation is not a concern provided that the slope and slope length of the landfill do not
differ dramatically from those of the test plots upon which the SCS method is based.
Use of the SCS method probably underestimates runoff somewhat where the overland
flow distance is very short or the slope is very steep or when the rainfall duration is very
short and the intensity is very high.
The HELP model assumes Darcian flow by gravity influences through homogeneous
soil and waste layers. It does not consider explicitly preferential flow through channels
such as cracks, root holes, or animal burrows but allows for vertical drainage through
the evaporative zone at moisture contents below field capacity. Similarly, the program
allows vertical drainage from a layer at moisture contents below field capacity when the
inflow would occupy a significant fraction of the available storage capacity below field
capacity. The drainage rate out of a segment is assumed to equal the unsaturated
hydraulic conductivity of the segment corresponding to its moisture content, provided that
the underlying segment is not a liner and is not saturated. In addition to these special
cases, the drainage rate out of a segment can be limited by the saturated hydraulic
conductivity of the segment below it. When limited, the program computes an effective
gradient for saturated flow through the lower segment. This permits vertical percolation
or lateral drainage layers to be arranged without restrictions on their properties as long
as they perform as their layer description implies and not as liners.
The model assumes that a., the soil moisture retention properties and unsaturated
hydraulic conductivity can be calculated from the saturated hydraulic conductivity and
limited soil moisture retention parameters (porosity, field capacity and wilting point) and
b_.. the soil moisture retention properties fit a Brooks-Corey relation (Brooks et al., 1964)
defined by the three soil moisture retention parameters. Upon obtaining the Brooks-
Corey parameters, the model assumes that the unsaturated hydraulic conductivity relation
with soil moisture is well described by the Campbell equation.
The model does not explicitly compute flow by differences in soil suction (soil
suction gradient) and, as such, does not model the draw of water upward by capillary
drying. This draw of water upward is modeled as an extraction rather than transport of
water upward. Therefore, it is important that the evaporative zone depth be specified as
the depth of capillary drying. Drainage downward by soil suction exerted by dry soils
lower in the landfill profile is modeled as Darcian flow for any soil having a relative
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moisture content greater than the lower soils. The drainage rate is equal to the
unsaturated hydraulic conductivity computed as a function of the soil moisture content.
As such, the rate is assumed to be independent of the pressure gradient.
Leakage through barrier soil liners is modeled as saturated Darcian flow. Leakage
is assumed to occur only as long as there is head on the surface of the liner. The model
assumes that the head driving the percolation can be represented by the average head
across the entire liner and can be estimated from the soil moisture storage. It is also
assumed that the liner underlies the entire area of the landfill and, conservatively, that
when leakage occurs, the entire area of the landfill leaks. The model does not consider
aging or drying of the Uner and, therefore, the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the
liner does not vary as a function of time.
Geomembranes are assumed to leak primarily through holes. The leakage passes
through the holes and spreads between the geomembrane and soil until the head is
dissipated. The leakage then percolates through the soil at the rate dependent on the
saturated hydraulic conductivity and the pressure gradient. Therefore, the net effect of
a geomembrane is to reduce the area of percolation through the liner system. The
program assumes the holes to be uniformly distributed and the head is distributed across
the entire liner. The model does not consider aging of the liner and therefore the number
and size of the holes do not vary as a function of time. In addition, it is conservatively
assumed that the head on the holes can be represented by the average head across the
entire liner and can be estimated from the soil moisture storage and that the liner
underlies the entire area of the landfill.
The lateral drainage model is based on the assumption that the saturated depth profile
is characteristic of the steady-state profile for the given average depth of saturation. As
such, the model assumes that the lateral drainage rate for steady-state drainage at a given
average depth of saturation is representative of unsteady lateral drainage rate for the same
average saturated depth. In actuality the rate would be somewhat larger for periods when
the depth is building and somewhat smaller for periods when the depth is falling. Steady
drainage implies that saturated conditions exist above the entire surface of the liner,
agreeing with the assumptions for leakage through liner systems.
The model assumes the vegetative growth and decay can be characterized by a
vegetative growth model developed for crops and perennial grasses. In addition, it is
assumed that the vegetation transpires water, shades the surface, intercepts rainfall and
reduces runoff in similar quantities as grasses or as an adjusted equivalence of LAI.
3.9.2 Limits of Application
The model can handle water routing through or storage in up to twenty soil or waste
layers; as many as five liner systems may be employed. The simulation period can range
from 1 to 100 years. The model cannot simulate a capillary break or unsaturated lateral
drainage.
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The model has limits on the arrangement of layers in the landfill profile. Each layer
must be described as being one of four types: vertical percolation layer, lateral drainage
layer, barrier soil liner, or geomembrane liner. The model does not permit a vertical
percolation layer to be placed directly below a lateral drainage layer. A barrier soil liner
may not underlie another barrier soil liner. Geomembranes cannot envelop a barrier soil
liner and barrier soil liners cannot envelop a geomembrane. The top layer may not be
a liner. If a liner is not placed directly below the lowest lateral drainage layer, the
lateral drainage layers in the lowest subprofile are treated by the model as vertical
percolation layers. No other restrictions are placed on the order of the layers.
The lateral drainage equation was developed for the expected range of hazardous
waste landfill design specifications. Permissible ranges for slope of the drainage layer
are 0 to 50 percent. Due to dimensionless structure of the lateral drainage equation,
there are no practical limits in the maximum drainage length.
Several interrelations must exist between the soil characteristics of a layer and of the
soil subprofile. The porosity, field capacity and wilting point can theoretically range
from 0 to 1 units of volume per volume; however, the porosity must be greater than the
field capacity, and the field capacity must be greater than the wilting point.
Initial soil moisture storage must be greater than or equal to the wilting point and less
than or equal to the porosity. The initial moisture content of liners must be equal to the
porosity and the liners remain saturated. The field capacity and wilting point values are
not used for barrier soil liners. Values for porosity, field capacity and wilting point are
not needed for geomembranes.
Values for the leaf area index may range from 0 for bare ground to 5 for an excellent
stand of grass. Detailed recommendations for leaf area indices and evaporative depths
are given in the program.
The default values for the evaporation coefficient are based on experimental results.
The basis for the calculation of these default values is described by Schroeder et al.
(1994). The model imposes upper and lower limits of 5.1 and 3.3 so as not to exceed
the range of experimental data.
Surface runoff from adjacent areas does not run onto the landfill, and the physical
characteristics of the landfill specified by the user remain constant over the modeling
period. No adjustments are made for the changes that occur in these characteristics as
the landfill ages. Additionally, the program cannot model the filling process within a
single simulation. Aging of materials and staging of the landfill operation must be
modeled by successive simulations.
Default Soil Characteristics
The HELP model contains default values of soil characteristics based on soil texture
class. The documentation for Version 3 describes the origin of these default values
40
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(Schroeder et al., 1994). Recommended default values for LAI and evaporative depth
based on thick loamy top soils are given in the program.
Manual Soil Characteristics
The HELP model computes values for the three Brooks-Corey parameters as
described in the documentation for Version 3 (Schroeder et al., 1994) based on the values
for porosity, field capacity and wilting point.
Soil Moisture Initialization
The soil moisture of the layers may be initialized by the user or the program. When
initialized by the program, the process consists of three steps. The first step sets the soil
moisture of all layers except barrier soil liners equal to field capacity and all barrier soil
liners to porosity (saturation). In the second step, the program computes a soil moisture
for each layer below the top barrier soil liner. These soil moisture contents are
computed to yield an unsaturated hydraulic conductivity equal to 85 percent of the lowest
effective saturated hydraulic conductivity of the all liner systems above the layer,
including consideration for the presence of a synthetic geomembrane liner. If the
unsaturated hydraulic conductivity is less than 1 x ID45 cm/sec and if the computed soil
moisture is greater than field capacity, the soil moisture is set to equal computed soil
moisture instead of the field capacity. The third step in the initialization consists of
running the model for one year of simulation using the first year of climate data and the
initial soil moisture values selected in the second step. At the end of this year of
initialization, the soil moisture values existing at that point are reported as the initial soil
moisture values. The simulation is then restarted using the first year of climate data.
Synthetic Temperature and Solar Radiation Values
The synthetically generated temperature and solar radiation values are assumed to be
representative of the climate at the site. Synthetic daily temperature is a function of
normal mean monthly temperature and the occurrence of rainfall. Synthetic daily solar
radiation is a function of latitude, occurrence of rainfall, average daily dry-day solar
radiation and average daily wet-day solar radiation.
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SECTION 4
PROGRAM INPUT
4.1 INTRODUCTION
This section describes the procedures and options available to input data, execute the
model, and obtain results. The discussion includes general input information, some
definitions and rules, the program structure, and detailed explanations of the options
reached from the Main Menu. Guidance is given throughout the section for selecting the
most appropriate values in certain situations, but the main purpose of this section is to
describe the mechanics of using the user interface. Detailed guidance on the definitions
of input parameters and selection of their values is presented in Section 3.
Version 3 of the HELP program is started by typing "HELPS" from the DOS prompt
in the directory where the program resides. The program starts by displaying a title
screen, a preface, a disclaimer and then the main menu. The user moves from the title
screen to the main menu by striking any key such as the space bar. Upon reaching the
main menu, the user can select any of seven options. The program automatically solicits
input from the user based on the option selected. In general the HELP model requires
the following data, some of which may be selected from the default values.
1. Units
2. Location
3. Weather data file names
4. Evapotranspiration information
5. Precipitation data
6. Temperature data
7. Solar radiation data
8. Soil and design data file name
9. General landfill and site information
10. Landfill profile and soil/waste/geomembrane data
11. SCS runoff curve number information
4.2 DEFINITIONS AND RULES
There are a few fundamental rules regarding the input facility that a user must keep
in mind when using the model. These rules should be followed to move around the
screens and to move within the same screen. Below are some definitions and rules.
1. Screens. A screen in the HELP user interface as used in this report is a single
screen of information. These screens are divided into three categories:
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• Input Screen: a screen on which the user can input data
• Selection Screen: a screen from which the user selects an entry from a list
• On-line Help Screen: a screen where assistance is provided. General assistance
on the interface is displayed by pressing the Fl key, technical assistance by
pressing the F2 key, and key operations by pressing the F3 key.
This terminology is used throughout this section. Each module consists of two
types of screens: "primary" and "secondary." Primary screens are main screens that
form a loop for each option of HELP. Secondary screens are displayed from the
primary screens as part of the input process. These screens can be input screens or
selection screens.
2. Input Cells. When the program highlights a number of spaces (called an "input cell"
throughout this section), an input from the user is expected. At any input cell, the
user has one of several options: enter the data requested, accept existing value, seek
on-line help, or select one of the menu items listed at the bottom of the screen. Each
cell is associated with a variable that is used directly or indirectly in the HELP
model. Therefore, every effort must be made to assign a value to each cell when
applicable. The user may input the value the first time around, or return to the cell
at a later time during the program session. If an input cell is left blank, a value of
zero will be assigned to the corresponding variable. If zero is not an appropriate
answer to the question, it will produce erroneous results. The program will warn the
user when a blank or zero is an inappropriate value.
Trailing decimal points are not required on input because the program
automatically knows whether to treat a value as an integer or a floating point
variable. For example, if a user wishes to enter the number nine, either 9, 9. or
9.00 is acceptable, provided the input cell is wide enough.
3. Selection Cells. These are cells that are used to select from a list of options.
Selection cells highlight one item at a time. An item/option must be highlighted
before it can be selected. Selection is made by pressing the Enter key.
4. Moving Between Cells. The user can move from one input screen to another, by
pressing the Page Down key for the next screen or Page Up key for the previous
screen in the loop of primary or secondary screens. Input screens are arranged in a
loop format such that if the Page Down key is pressed from the last input screen the
control will return to the first screen, and vice versa. The up and down arrows are
used to move up and down through the cells of a screen. If the up arrow is pressed
from the first cell on the screen, control will transfer to the last cell on the same
screen, and vice versa. The Tab and Shift-Tab keys can be used to move to the
right and to the left, respectively, among input and selection cells that are located on
the same line. In addition, the left and right arrows may be used to move between
43
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selection cells that are located on the same line.
5. Moving Within an Input Cell. Each input cell is set to a given width depending on
the type of information expected to be entered in that cell. The cursor will be
initially located on the first character space of the cell. The left and right arrow keys
may be used to move the cursor to different spaces within the cell. If a value is
typed in the first space of the cell, the cell contents will be deleted. To delete a
character, move the cursor to the character location and then press the Delete key,
or move the cursor to the space that is to the right of the character and then press the
Backspace key. A character can be inserted between characters in an input cell by
moving the cursor to the desired position and then pressing the Insert key. The
Insert key will shift all characters that are at and to the right of the cursor one
position to the right.
6. Terminating. At any time during the session, the user may press the F9 key to quit
without saving changes, return to the main menu or exit the program. The Esc key
and the Ctrl-Break keys will end some options and allow you to continue with other
operations. The F10 key is used to save the data or proceed. If necessary, the user
can terminate input or execution by rebooting (Ctrl-Alt-Del keys), resetting, or
turning off the computer; however, the user is discouraged from terminating a run
in these manners because some of the data may be lost.
7. On-Line Help. On-line help is available to the user from any cell location on the
screen. By pressing Fl, information about the operations and purpose of the screen
is displayed, and by pressing F2, specific technical assistance for the highlighted cell
is displayed. Note that the on-line help screens contain sections from this User's
Guide and that the figures and tables mentioned on the screens are located in this
document. The F3 key displays various functions of keystrokes. Other specific
information of the input screen is listed in menu line(s) at the bottom of screen.
8. System of Units. Throughout the HELP program the user is required to select a
system of units. The HELP model allows the user to use either the customary system
of units (a mixture of U.S. Customary and metric units traditionally used in landfill
design and in Version 2 of the HELP model) or the Metric (SI) system of units. The
user is not restricted to the same system for all data types; for example, the soil and
design data can be in one system of units and the weather data can be in the other
system. Moreover, it is not necessary for all types of weather data to have the same
system of units (i.e., evapotranspiration data can be in the Metric system of units,
while precipitation data is in customary units; the solar radiation data can be in
customary units, while temperature data is in Metric units, and so on). Appropriate
units are displayed in proper locations to keep the user aware of which units should
be used for each data entry. Consistency in units is only required within each data
type.
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4.3 PROGRAM STRUCTURE
The flow or logic of the input facility of the HELP program may be viewed as a tree
structure. The tree structure consists of nodes where new branches of the tree are
started. The first node is called the trunk, root or parent node, and the terminal nodes
of the tree are called leaves. All components (nodes) of the tree structure in the HELP
model are screens that have different functions as defined previously, with the trunk node
being the Main Menu. During an input session, the user should reach the leaf node if
all the data for a given branch (module) are entered. Some of the nodes (screens) are
common to more than one branch. The user must return to the node where the branch
started in order to go to another branch. These movements can be accomplished with
the special keys discussed above, such as Page Up, Page Down, F9, F10, etc.
4.4 MAIN MENU
At the beginning of each run, the Main Menu is displayed. A schematic of the main
menu in Figure 3 shows the seven available modules (branches). Selection from the
main menu is made by either moving the cursor to the desired module or by pressing the
number of that option. Once a selection is made, program control transfers into an
environment specific to that option and cannot transfer to another main menu option
without exiting that environment to the main menu and then selecting another option.
A brief description of each main menu option is presented below. More details are given
in the following sections about specific data requirements for each option.
Option 1 on the main menu is "Enter/Edit Weather Data." This module permits the
user to read evapotranspiration, precipitation, temperature, and solar radiation data files
and then review, edit, and save the data or create new files. There are four primary
screens in this module; they are a file selection screen, evapotranspiration data screen,
a screen that controls the method used for specifying precipitation, temperature and solar
radiation data, and a screen for saving weather data files. Several options are available
for specifying precipitation, temperature and solar radiations data. These vary from
using default data (for precipitation only) to synthetic and other user-defined data
sources, such as NOAA Tape, Climatedata™, ASCII data, HELP Version 2 data, and
Canadian Climatological data. Data may also be entered manually. Default and
synthetic weather data generation is performed by selecting the city of interest from a list
of cities and specifying (optional) additional data.
Option 2 on the main menu is "Enter/Edit Soil and Design Data. " This module
allows the user to read an already existing soil and design data file and then review, edit,
and save the data or create a new data file. There are eight primary screens in the soil
and design data module; they are a file selection screen, a landfill general information
screen, three screens for entering design, soil and geomembrane liner data by layers, a
screen for entering a runoff curve number, a data verification screen, and a screen for
saving the soil and design data file. Input screens associated with this module provide
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A
1
N
H
E
U
^
1 / ENTER/EDIT /
* ^/ WEATHER /
^ ^ DATA /
2 / ENTERJEDIT /
S ^/ SOIL AND /
"^ f DESIGN DATA /
^3 EXECUTE
^ * SIMULATION
4 ^^^^ VIEW ^\
^ -><\^RESULTS )
5 . PRINT I
- ^ RESULTS
6 ^^ DISPLAY ^X^
^ ^X. GUIDANCE s?
^*^~^*- , j*"*x^
Figure 3. HELPS Main Menu
cells for entering project title; system of units; initial soil conditions; landfill area; layer
design information, such as layer type, thickness, soil texture, drainage characteristics;
geomembrane liner information; and runoff curve number information including the
ability to adjust the curve number a function of surface slope and length. At the end of
this module, the user may request that the data be checked for possible violation of the
design rules explained in Section 3. Under this module, the HELP model verifies the
design data, soil and geomembrane liner properties and layer arrangement.
Option 3 on the main menu is "Execute Simulation." In this option the user defines
the data files to be used in running the simulation component of the HELP model and
selects the output frequency and simulation duration desired from execution. In this
option the user can also view the list of files available and can make file selections from
these lists.
Option 4 on the main menu is "View Results." This option allows the user to
browse through the output file and examine the results of the run after executing the
program. Option 5 is "Print Results," and Option 6 is "Display Guidance" on general
landfill design procedures and on the HELP model itself, containing much of the text of
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this user's guide. Finally, Option 7 is used to "Quit" running the model and return to
DOS.
In the following sections, detailed explanations of the main menu options are
presented, and methods of data entry to the program and various options are discussed.
4.5 WEATHER DATA
As mentioned above, this module is selected from the main menu by pressing 1,
"Enter/Edit Weather Data." A schematic of this module is shown in Figure 4. In this
module, the user can specify all of the weather data (evapotranspiration, precipitation,
temperature and solar radiation) required to run the model. The four primary screens
in this module are "Weather Data - File Editing", "Evapotranspiration Data",
"Precipitation, Temperature, and Solar Radiation Data", and "Weather Data - File
Saving". Several secondary screens may appear during the session depending upon the
action taken by the user. On-line help screens are always available for display by
pressing Fl or F2. The individual primary screens and their secondary screens of this
module are discussed below.
ENTER/EDIT
WEATHER
DATA
WEATHER
DATA FILES
FOR
EDITING
EVAPO-
TRANSPIRATION
DATA
PgDn
PRECIPITATION,
TEMPERATURE &
SOLAR RADIATION
DATA
F10
VERIFY A SAVE
WEATHER
DATA FILES
F10
PgUp
M
A
I
N
M
E
N
U
Figure 4. Schematic of Weather Data Module
4.5.1 Weather Data File Selection
The first screen in the weather data module is the "Weather Data - File Editing"
screen. A schematic of this screen is shown in Figure 5. On this screen, the user may
enter file names of existing files to select previously generated HELP Version 3 files for
editing or leave the file names blank to create new data. One file name for each of the
four types of weather data to be edited is needed. The DOS path may be specified if
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Figure 5. Schematic of "Weather Data - File Editing" Screen
different from the active or default drive and subdirectory, such as C:\HELP3\DATA.
The following gives file naming and extension information as displayed on the screen.
Data Type DOS Path HDrive and/or Subdirectory)
Precipitation
Temperature
Solar radiation
Evapotranspiration
User Specified
File Name
*.D4
*.D7
*.D13
*.D11
* Any valid DOS name that the user desires (up to eight characters) is acceptable.
The HELP program supplies the extension.
This convention must be always remembered when selecting file names for editing,
saving, or converting data from other sources. However, when typing a file name on
this screen, the user should not enter the extension because the program automatically
assigns the proper extension to the file according to the weather types.
The current directory is displayed on the screen. The user may obtain a listing of
all data files that reside on the current directory by pressing F4. By pressing F4, the
program obtains a directory of all files that pertain to the weather data cell from which
F4 was pressed. For example, if F4 was pressed from the temperature file cell, the
program will display the list of files with an extension of D7 that reside on the currently
specified directory. Up to 120 data files for any weather data type can be displayed on
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the screen. The name of the current directory where these files are located is also
displayed. To obtain the data files pertaining to the weather information needed that
reside in another directory, the user should type in the name of a valid drive and
subdirectory in the Directory column and then press F4 for the list of files in that
subdirectory. To display a directory for another type of data, move the cursor to the row
for that data type and repeat the process listed above.
To select a file from the list of displayed files, move the cursor to the desired file
name and press Enter. This action transfers control back to the previous screen, and the
name of the file just selected will be displayed in the proper cell. The user can exit the
"Data Files" screen without selecting a file by pressing the Esc key.
If the user wants to enter the file name in the file cell, the user must first enter the
correct directory name. If an invalid directory is entered, the program will displayed the
message, "Invalid Directory," and replace the entered directory name with the default
directory name (where the program was started). The user then has another opportunity
to enter the correct directory name. If the program cannot find the file name as entered,
the message, "File Not Found," will be displayed. The previously entered file name is
erased and the user has another opportunity to enter a correct file name. Pressing Page
Down causes the program to read the valid data files selected and then proceeds to the
first weather data entry screen.
4.5.2 Evapotranspiration (ET) Data
The evapotranspiration data requirements are listed in Section 3 and are entered to
the program from the "Evapotranspiration Data" screen. This screen contains all
information required by the HELP model to construct the evapotranspiration data file
(*.D11). If the user specified an edit file name for the evapotranspiration data, the
contents of the file will be displayed in the appropriate cells on this screen. The user can
move the cursor to any cell to edit its contents. However, if no file was selected as an
edit file, then data must be specified by the user. First, the user must select the system
of units to be used for the evapotranspiration data, which may be entered in customary
or metric units as explained in a previous section. A schematic of this screen is shown
in Figure 6. The two methods for entering this data are the manual option and the
default option.
Manual Option
This option requires the user to enter all evapotranspiration data manually. The user
should first specify a location in the form of a city, state and latitude, followed by the
evaporative zone depth, the maximum leaf area index, the Julian dates of the start
(planting) and end (harvest) of the growing season, the annual average wind speed, and
quarterly average relative humidities (in percentages) for the entered location.
49
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F1
EVAPO-
TRANSPIRATION
DATA
FS / CITIES FOR
< — V DEFAULT DATA
\ ^
< >
VERIFY *
SAVE WEATHER
DATA FILES
>
M
A
N
U
PgUp
PgDn
PRECIPITATION,
TEMPERATURE1
SOLAR RADIATION
DATA
Figure 6. Schematic of "Evapotranspiration Data" Screen
Default Option
This option takes advantage of an available list of cities for which default values are
provided for most of the evapotranspiration data; guidance information is available for
the rest of the data. This option is triggered from any input cell on the
"Evapotranspiration Data" screen by pressing F5 and selecting a location (state and city)
from a displayed list of locations. This list of cities is the same as that in Table 3.
Once a city is selected, the program automatically displays values in the appropriate
input cells for the city, state, latitude, growing season dates, wind speed, and the four
quarterly humidity values for that location. The program, however, displays guidance
information on the evaporative zone depth for that location depending on the vegetative
cover. The user must enter a value of the evaporative zone depth that is appropriate for
the landfill design, location, top soil, and vegetation. (See Section 3 for detailed
guidance.)
The user must also enter a value for the maximum leaf area index for the site. If the
value entered is greater than the default maximum allowable value based on the climate
for the selected city, the program will display that value only as a guidance to the user.
50
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The user is not forced to change the entered value.
If the user decides to edit the name of the city or state, the program will erase the
guidance information. Guidance is provided only for cities that are selected from the list
obtained by pressing F5.
The location of the landfill being evaluated is likely to be some distance from all of
the listed cities. In this case, the user has the option to select a city that has an similar
climate and edit the values to improve the data or to simply enter the information
manually.
The bottom line of the "Evapotranspiration Data" screen provides additional help
information. Once all data are entered, the user can move on to another screen by
pressing Page Up or Page Down, return to the main menu by pressing F9, or proceed
to save the evapotranspiration data by pressing F10.
4.5.3 Precipitation, Temperature and Solar Radiation Data
The second screen in the weather data module is entitled "Precipitation, Temperature
and Solar Radiation." From this screen, the user can select methods for creating the
precipitation data file (*.D4), the temperature data file (*.D7), and the solar radiation
data file (*.D13). A schematic of the main options available on this screen are shown
in Figure 7. In Version 3 of the HELP model, all of the weather data need not be
generated by the same method. For example, the user can enter the precipitation data
using the synthetic weather generator, the temperature data using data from a NOAA data
file, and solar radiation from an ASCII file. Seven options are available for entering
temperature and solar radiation data. Under the precipitation data there are the same
seven plus a default option. Figures 8, 9, and 10 show the possible options.
Default Precipitation
If the default precipitation option (Customary Units Only) is selected, the program
will prompt the user with the list of states having default data. The HELP model
provides default precipitation values for the list of cities in Table 1. To select a state,
move the cursor to the desired state name and press Enter. At this time the program
prompts the user with the list of cities in the selected state for which default precipitation
data is available. Similarly, the city can be selected by moving the cursor to the desired
city and pressing Enter. The user can return to the "Precipitation, Temperature and
Solar Radiation" screen from either list by pressing Esc. By doing so, neither a city nor
a state is considered selected. However, once a city is selected, the program reads the
five years of default precipitation data for the selected city. The usefulness of the default
precipitation option is limited since it contains only five years of precipitation data. It
is additionally limiting since these five years may be dry or wet years and may not be
representative of the site in question.
51
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Figure 7. Schematic of "Precipitation, Temperature and Solar Radiation" Screen
-
f— *
t— *
~
DEFAULT
NOAA TAPE
ASCtt
HELP 2
../ LIST OF \
* *\ CITIES /
* ^/ LIST OF NV^,
*• *V CITIES >"•
HYEAH RECORDS
OELECTKJM
- ^T^CONVERT AND
^ ^^"cONVERT AND
" *j IMPORT DATA
.. J^CONVEHT AND
* *\ IMPORT DATA
'^V^^DATA
^ DAILY I
~* DATA I
^_ t
Figure 8. Precipitation Options
52
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The following options are available for entering "Precipitation, Temperature, and Solar
Radiation" data.
Synthetic
The second available method for entering precipitation data is to use the synthetic
weather generator (Customary or Metric Units). (This is the first method on the screen
for entering temperature and solar radiation data.) This option can be selected for
temperature and solar radiation only if the user has previously entered precipitation data
since the synthetic weather generator requires precipitation values for generating both
temperature and solar radiation. By selecting the synthetic data option, the program
prompts the user with a list of states for which it has synthetic weather data coefficients.
Again the user can move the cursor to the appropriate state and press Enter to obtain the
list of cities in that state for which synthetic data can be generated. From this list, the
user can select the city where the project is located or a city with a climate similar to the
project location. Selection is accomplished by moving the cursor to the selection cell
highlighting the desired city and pressing Enter. At any time, the user may abandon the
input for the synthetic weather generator by pressing Esc; the program will return to the
"Precipitation, Temperature and Solar Radiation" screen without loss of previously
entered data.
^ — ^
r ^
k J
CREATE/EDIT
NOAA TAPE
CLIMATEDATA
ASCII
.
< — X
. ^r
' 1
T
1
DATA ^
^ DAILY
* DATA
-------
Once a city is selected, the program displays another screen called "Synthetic
Precipitation Data", "Synthetic Temperature Data" or "Synthetic Solar Radiation Data."
On this screen, the city and state are displayed, and the user is asked to provide
additional information. The first value that must be entered is the number of years of
synthetic data to be generated. The rest of the information on the screen is optional.
For precipitation, the user can elect to use the default normal mean monthly precipitation
values provided by the HELP program or to enter normal mean monthly precipitation
values to be used in generating the synthetic precipitation for that location. For
temperature, the user has the option to use the default normal mean monthly temperature
values provided by the HELP program or to enter normal mean monthly temperature
values to be used in generating the synthetic temperature for that location. Users are
encouraged to enter their own normal mean monthly values especially if the landfill is
not located at the selected city. The program uses the normal mean monthly data to
adjust the data generated by the synthetic weather generator. If the user decides not to
use the default values, the program will transfer control to the normal mean monthly data
option under the "User" heading. At this time the user must input values for January
through December. A blank cell for a given month will be recorded as zero, and the
user must be careful not to leave a cell without an entry. A zero entry, however, is a
valid entry. For solar radiation the optional value is the latitude for the location. The
default latitude of the selected city will be displayed, but the user is encouraged to enter
the latitude of the actual landfill location to obtain better solar radiation values.
SOLAR f *.
RADIATION k ^
4* ^
** S
V. J
f X
r^ **!
f x
f *\
CLIMATED AT A
ASCII
HELP 2
CANADIAN
** *W
s ^
c >f
1
c >\
c *[
<. -J
1
C if
1
*-^(
"
(LIST OF N..,
CITIES /**•
YEAR
SELECTION
"CONVERT AND
IMPORT DATA
: PRESENTLY
UNAVAILABLE
"CONVERT AND
IMPORT DATA
"CONVERT AND
IMPORT DATA
CONVERT AND
IMPORT DATA
s_/"^OPTIONAL ^N
-*V DATA )
, ^ DAILY
• '* DATA
Figure 10. Solar Radiation Options
54
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Create/Edit
If the user selects the create/'edit option (Customary or Metric Units) for manually
entering or editing precipitation, temperature and/or solar radiation data, the program
prompts the user with a request to enter the city and state of the location and the units
that will be used for entering the data manually. These requests appear on the same
screen as "Precipitation, Temperature and Solar Radiation" screen and will be filled in
with information when editing an existing data file. The user may press the Esc key to
abandon the entry of this information and return to the selection of another weather data
option. Once the location and units are specified, the program displays the yearly data
screen.
Yearly Data Screen
This screen is like a spreadsheet that has four columns. Two of these columns are
for the precipitation data, and one column each is for temperature and solar radiation.
The first column is for the year for which the precipitation data is to be entered, and the
second column is for total annual precipitation. The user cannot access the yearly total
precipitation column since this total is computed by the program after the daily data for
the year is entered. If the user reaches this screen from the precipitation option on the
"Precipitation, Temperature, and Solar Radiation" screen, the user will only be able to
move within the column under precipitation. Similarly, if the user reaches this screen
from the temperature data option, men only movement in the temperature column is
permitted, and analogously, for the solar radiation option.
To enter a new year of daily values, the user should move the cursor to a empty cell,
type in the year and press Enter. The program will display the daily data screen on
which the daily values are entered. The user can return to the yearly data screen by
pressing F10 to retain the data (to a temporary file) or by pressing Esc to abandon the
created data.
The user can enter up to 100 years of daily data. The yearly data screen can only
display 20 rows at a time. The user, however, can move the cursor to the bottom of the
screen and then cursor down to move to the next row until the hundredth row is
displayed. Similarly, the user can move the cursor upward to display the rows in the
spreadsheet that are not shown on the screen, if any. To move down 20 rows, press
Page Down, and to move up 20 rows, press Page Up. To reach the last row, press End,
and to go to the first row press Home.
To edit an existing year of daily values, the user must first create and/or read
weather data. If the data were previously saved, the user should specify the existing data
file "Weather Data - File Editing" screen immediately after selecting the "Enter/Edit
Weather Data" option from the main menu. The HELP model reads the data from the
edit file and stores it in a temporary file. Upon entering the create/edit option, the
55
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program displays the list of years for precipitation, the total annual precipitation for each
year, and a list of years for the temperature and solar radiation data. To edit, move the
cursor to the year that is to be edited and press Enter. The program will display the
daily data screen and the user may type over any values that need to be edited. The
operation of the yearly data spreadsheet and the daily data spreadsheet is the same when
editing existing data or when creating new data.
After entering or editing years of daily weather data, the user can return to the
"Precipitation, Temperature and Solar Radiation" screen to exercise other weather data
options. To retain the newly created or edited years of daily weather data, the user
should press F10 from the yearly data screen; the program will then replace the existing
temporary data file containing all of the years of data for that type of weather data. To
lose the newly entered or edited daily data, the user should press F9 or Esc; the program
will retain the previously existing temporary data file containing the values of that type
of weather data prior to entering the create/edit option.
Daily Data Screen
Upon selecting or specifying a year from the yearly data screen, the program
displays the daily data screen, a spreadsheet for entering daily data. This spreadsheet
consists of 10 columns and 37 rows. The spreadsheet contains information on the file
name, the year, month, and day. This information is displayed at the top of the
spreadsheet. The day and month are continuously updated as the user moves from one
cell to another. The first day is considered January 1, and the last day is December 31.
The spreadsheet is divided into two parts, the first part being rows 1 through 19, and the
second part, rows 20 through 37. The user can move the cursor to the bottom of the
screen and cursor down to move to the next row until the 37th row is displayed.
Similarly, the user can move the cursor upward to display any rows in the spreadsheet
that are not shown. To move from the upper to the lower portions of the spreadsheet
and vice versa, press Page Down and Page Up, respectively. To reach the last cell in
the spreadsheet, press End, and to return to the first cell, press Home.
The user should input values one day at a time without leaving empty cells between
months. For example, the first month (January) will extend to the first cell (or column)
in the fourth row. The values for the first day in February should start in column 2 of
row 4; no empty cells are left between months. An empty cell is considered by the
program to indicate a value of zero for that day. A zero is a valid entry. The program
keeps track of leap years and adjusts the month and day at the top of the spreadsheet
accordingly. Since there are 37 lines with each line containing 10 days of data, there
will be empty cells at the end of line 37 in the spreadsheet. These cells are ignored by
the program.
If the user decides to quit entering data in the daily spreadsheet and return to the
yearly spreadsheet, the user should press the Esc key. By doing so, whatever data were
56
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entered on the daily data sheet will be lost; the previously existing data will be retained.
To exit the daily spreadsheet and retain the data entered on that sheet, the user should
press F10. Note that the F10 key will retain the data in a temporary file only and not
in any previously selected file. A separate temporary file is maintained for each year of
daily data.
Once the user returns to the yearly weather sheet, more years can be entered or
edited, and the daily values for these years can be input on the daily sheet in the same
manner described above. After exiting the precipitation spreadsheet by pressing F10, and
upon returning to the yearly sheet, the annual total precipitation for that year is computed
and displayed next to the year.
Editing Data on Yearly Data Screen
Besides selecting years for creating or editing daily data, the user has the options on
the yearly data screen to select only a portion of a weather file for future use, to
rearrange the years of data, to repeat the same year(s) of data for a longer simulation
period or to insert years of data into an existing file. These options are performed using
the functions to add (insert) a year above or below an existing year in the list of years,
delete a year, move a year to a position above or below an existing year in the list of
years, or copy a year to a position above or below an existing year in the list of years.
The options are performed only on the type of data (precipitation, temperature or solar
radiation) highlighted when the create/edit option was selected. This is done by using
the following key combinations of functions:
Alt A adds/inserts a year (either new, being moved or being copied) above the
highlighted year (where the cursor is positioned)
Alt B adds/inserts a year (either new, being moved or being copied) below the
highlighted year (where the cursor is positioned)
Alt D deletes the highlighted year (where the cursor is positioned)
Alt M tags the highlighted year (where the cursor is positioned) to be moved
to another location to be designated using the cursor and Alt A or Alt B
Alt C tags the highlighted year (where the cursor is positioned) to be copied
to another location to be designated using the cursor and Alt A or Alt B
To add a new year directly above a certain year, for example above the year on
line 29 (Line numbering is shown on the left edge of the screen.), the user should move
the cursor to line 29, hold the Alt key down, and press A. The result of this action is
57
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that a blank cell is inserted above line 29, and the program shifts the year on line 29 and
all the years below it one line downward (i.e. year on line 29 moves to line 30, year on
line 30 moves to line 31, etc.), and line 29 will be a blank line for the user to enter the
value for the new year.
To add a year directly below a certain year, for example below the year on line 5,
the user should move the cursor to line 5, hold the Alt key down, and press B. The
result of this action is that a blank cell is inserted below line 5, and the program shifts
the year on line 6 and all the years below it one line downward (i.e. year on line 6
moves to line 7, year on line 7 moves to line 8, etc.), and line 6 will be a blank cell for
the user to enter the value of the new year.
The Alt D combination causes the program to delete a year from the list of years.
For example, to delete the year on line 15, the user should move the cursor to line 15,
hold the Alt key down, and press D. The program will delete information on line 15 and
will shift the years on lines 16 to 100 upward one line (i.e., year on line 16 moves to
line 15, year on line 17 moves to line 16, etc.), and cell on line 100 becomes an empty
cell. The user is cautioned that the deleted year cannot be recovered without quitting and
losing all changes (F9 or Esc). The original temporary file is replaced only when the
changes are finally retained by pressing F10 from the yearly data screen.
The copy command allows the user to place a year that is identical to another year
on another line. For example, to copy the year on line 70 to line 5, move the cursor to
line 70 and press the Alt C combination, then move the cursor to line 5 and press the
AU A combination. At this point, the user must specify a value for the new year; the
value must be different from the value of any other year in the data set for that type of
weather data. This action will cause the new value for the year to appear on line 5 but
the daily values will be the same as those found for the year copied and previously found
in line 70. (The user may obtain the same result after the Alt C combination by moving
to line 4 and pressing the combination AU B).
The move command allows the user to move one year from one location on the
yearly data screen to another. For example, to move the year on line 32 above the year
on line 56, move the cursor to line 32, press the Alt M combination, and move the
cursor to line 56 and press the Alt A combination. This action will cause the year on
line 32 to be deleted and be placed directly above the year on line 56. (The user may
obtain the same result after the Alt M combination by moving to line 55 and pressing the
combination Alt B).
The Esc key can be used to quit the move and copy functions (after pressing Alt M
or Alt C and before pressing Alt A or Alt B. By editing the data as discussed above, the
user is actually arranging the order of the precipitation data of the years. Actual
rearranging of data in the data file, however, takes place only after the user presses F10.
58
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NOAA Tape Data
This option allows the user to enter data to the HELP model from a NOAA data set
(Customary Units Only). If this option is selected, the user must enter the city and state
for the site and the NOAA file name. For the precipitation and temperature options, the
NOAA data file should contain daily Summary of Day data written in as-on-tape format.
Note that for temperature data two file names are requested, one for the maximum
temperature and the other for the minimum temperature. If the user has only a mean
temperature data file, the mean temperature data file name should be entered for both
maximum and minimum temperature data file names. For the solar radiation option the
NOAA data file should contain hourly Surface Airways data written in as-on-tape format.
Example NOAA data files are included with the HELP program ~ PC49215A.PRN for
precipitation, MX49215A.PRN for maximum temperature and MN49215A.PRN for
minimum temperature. When entering the NOAA file name, the user should include the
DOS path (if the file location is different than the default directory), file name and
extension. The user can abandon the entry of this data by pressing Esc. Once valid
information is entered, the program reads the data from the specified file and converts
it to the HELP Version 3 format.
CKmatedata"1
This option allows the user to enter daily precipitation or temperature data to the
HELP model from Climatedata™ (Customary Units Only). If this option is selected, the
user must enter the city and state for the site and the Climatedata™ file name. Note that
for temperature data, two file names are requested, one for the maximum temperature
file and the other for the minimum temperature file. The Climatedata™ file should have
been created by exporting or printing the CD-ROM data to an ASCII print file. This
same format is used by data bases other than Climatedata™ and therefore these data bases
can be converted using this same option. Example Climatedata™ files are included with
the HELP program - BIRM.PRC for precipitation, BIRM.MAX for maximum
temperature and BffiM.MIN for minimum temperature. When entering the Climatedata™
file name, the user should include the DOS path (if the file location is different than the
default directory), file name and extension. The user can abandon the entry of this data
by pressing Esc. Once valid information is entered, the program reads the data from the
specified file and converts it to the HELP Version 3 format.
ASCII Data
This option allows the user to enter daily weather data to the HELP model from
ASCH data files (Customary or Metric Units). The ASCH data set is composed of lines
of data whose values are separated by a blank(s), a comma or other non-numeric symbol.
If this option is selected, the user must enter the city and state for the site, the units of
the data in the ASCII files. The user can abandon the entry of this data by pressing Esc.
Once valid information is entered, the program then asks for the file name and year of
the ASCII data set, one year at a time. Each file should contain only one year of daily
59
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values for a particular type of data, either precipitation, mean temperature or solar
radiation. Example ASCH data files are included with the HELP program -- RAIN. 1 and
RAIN.2 for precipitation, TEMP.l and TEMP.2 for temperature and SOLAR. 1 and
SOLAR.2 for solar radiation. When entering the ASCH data file name, the user should
include the DOS path (if the file location is different than the default directory), file
name and extension. In order to return from this option to the "Precipitation,
Temperature, and Solar Radiation" screen, press Esc.
HELP 2
This option allows the user to enter weather data to the HELP model Version 3 from
a data file used in the HELP model Version 2 (Customary Units Only). If this option is
selected, the user must enter the city and state for the site and the HELP Version 2 data
file name. Example HELP 2 data files are included with the HELP program -- ALA4
for precipitation, ALA7 for temperature and ALA 13 for solar radiation. When entering
the HELP 2 data file name, the user should include the DOS path (if the file location is
different than the default directory), file name and extension. The user can abandon the
entry of this data by pressing Esc. Once valid information is entered, the program reads
the data from the specified file and converts it to the HELP Version 3 format.
Canadian
This option allows the user to enter weather data to the HELP model from a
Canadian Climatological Data (Surface) file (Metric Units Only). If this option is
selected, the user must enter the city and state for the site and the Canadian
Climatological Data file name. The precipitation and mean temperature data files should
contain daily values written in either compressed or uncompressed diskette format. The
solar radiation data file should contain hourly global solar radiation values also written
in either compressed or uncompressed diskette format. Example Canadian data files are
included with the HELP program - CAN4.DAT and CCAN4.DAT for precipitation,
CAN7.DAT and CCAN7.DAT for temperature and CAN13.DAT and CCAN13.DAT
for solar radiation. When entering the Canadian data file name, the user should include
the DOS path (if the file location is different than the default directory), file name and
extension. The user can abandon the entry of this data by pressing Esc. Once valid
information is entered, the program reads the data from the specified file and converts
it to the HELP Version 3 format.
4.5.4 Saving Weather Data
During the creation of the weather data explained above, the data are saved in
temporary files. To save the data to permanent files, the user must press F10 from the
primary screens. Once the F10 key is pressed, the program verifies that all the data have
been entered. If any of the data is incomplete, the program displays a list of the problem
areas. The user can return to the primary screens to complete the data or continue to
60
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save the incomplete data. After displaying the deficiencies, the program displays the
"Weather Data - File Saving" screen. Here the user may save all or only some of the
four weather types, or completely abandon the save option. The user should tag each
type of data to be saved by entering a "Y" in the "SAVE" column and those not to be
saved by entering a "N" in the "SAVE" column. Default file names are displayed in
appropriate locations on this screen; these are the same names as used in Version 2. At
this time, the user may enter new file names for any or all of the four types of weather
data. (See Section 4.5.1 for file naming convention used in HELP.) If the file already
exists, the program will display "File Already Exists" after entering the name. After
replacing all file names of interest, the user should press F10 or Page Down to complete
the saving to the requested file names. If files already exists for any of the file names
as they would for the default names, the program will ask the user about overwriting
each existing file. If the user answers " Y" for all of the files, the program will overwrite
the files, complete the saving process and return to the main menu. If the user answers
"N" for any file, the program will interrupt the saving, return to the "SAVE" column
and change the tag to "N". The user can then change the tag back to "Y", rename the
file, and restart the saving by pressing F10 or Page Down. The program provides other
options listed on the "File Saving" screen to enable the user to return the weather data
entry screens (Page Up) or to return to the main menu without saving the data (F9). The
user must be cautioned that the F9 option will cause all the data created (if any) to be
lost. Figure 11 shows the available options.
Figure 11. "Weather Data - File Saving" Screen Options
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4.6 SOBL AND DESIGN DATA
This module is selected from the main menu by pressing 2, "Enter/Edit SoU and
Design." While in this module, the user will be able to enter site information, a landfill
profile, layer design data, characteristics of soils, geomembranes and other materials, and
SCS runoff curve number information. The primary screens in this module are the "Soil
and Design Data - File Editing" screen, "Landfill General Information" screen, three
Landfill Profile Design and Layer Data screens, "Runoff Curve Number Information"
screen, "Verification and Saving" screen and "Soil and Design Data - File Saving"
screen. Several secondary screens may appear during the session depending on the
action taken by the user. On-line help screens are always available for display by
pressing Fl or F2. The individual primary screens and their secondary screens of this
module are discussed below. Figure 12 shows a schematic of the soil and design data
module.
3 SHEETS OF
LANDFILL
PROFILE DESIGN
AND LAYER
DATA
VERIFY DATA
4 SAVE
USER SOIL
TEXTURES
t .?
SAVE
SOIL *
DATA
FILE
F*>
^
y
A
N
H
E
N
U
Figure 12. Schematic of Soil and Design Data Module
4.6.1 Soil and Design Data File Selection
The first screen in the soil and design module is the "Soil and Design Data - File
Editing" screen. A schematic of this screen is shown in Figure 13. On this screen the
user may enter the file name of an existing file to select a previously generated HELP
Version 3 file for editing or leave the file name blank to create new data. When
selecting a file to be edited, the user may specify the DOS path if different from the
default drive and subdirectory, such as C:\HELP3\DATA. The default directory is
initially displayed in the directory cell on the screen. If the user specifies a drive or a
directory that does not exist, the program will display respectively "Invalid Drive" or
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"Invalid Directory" and replaces the content with the default directory. The soil and
design data file may have any valid DOS name of up to 8 characters. If the user enters
an illegal file name, the program displays "Bad File Name" and clears the file name.
If the user specifies a file name that does not exist, the program displays "File Not
Found" and clears the file name. The program adds an extension of .D10 to the file
name. As such, the user should not specify the extension in HELP Version 3 whenever
entering a file name for editing or saving.
SOIL IL DESIGN
DATA FILE
TO EDIT
P|0n
PROCEED TO
SOIL t DESIGN
DATA ENTRY
t EDITING
Figure 13. "Soil and Design Data - File Editing" Screen Options
As shown in Figure 13, the user may obtain a listing of all soil and design data files
that reside on the directory currently specified in the directory cell by pressing F4. Up
to 120 data files can be displayed on the screen. The name of the current directory
where these files are located is also displayed. To change to another directory, the user
should enter the name of that directory in the column labeled DIRECTORY. To select
a file from the list of displayed files, move the cursor to the file and select it by pressing
Enter. This transfers control back to the previous screen and the name of the file just
selected will be displayed in the proper cell. The user can exit the list-of-files screen
without selecting a file by pressing F4 again or Esc.
When ready to proceed to enter new data or edit existing data, the user should press
Page Down or F10. The program then reads the data file to be edited, if a file is
specified, and proceeds to the "Landfill General Information" screen. If a new data set
is to be created (file name left blank), the program initializes the soil and design data and
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then asks for the system of units to be used throughout the module (Customary or
Metric). Proper units are displayed throughout the module for entries that require units.
4.6.2 Landfill General Information
The second input screen in the soil and design data module is the "Landfill General
Information" screen. Figure 14 shows the screen and its branches as a schematic. By
moving the cursor to the appropriate cell, the user can enter new information or edit the
information that was read from the edit file. The first entry is the project title which is
only used for identification of the simulation.
1
h- »
VERIFY t
SAVE SOIL
1 DESIGN
DATA
H
A
1
M
M
E
N
U
Figure 14. Schematic of "Landfill General Information" Screen
The second entry on this screen is the landfill area. The units of the area are
displayed next to the input cell according to the system of units selected. The user should
enter the area in acres for Customary units or in hectares for Metric units. The third
entry is for the percent of area where runoff is possible. This variable specifies the
portion of the area that is sloped in a manner that would permit drainage off the surface.
The runoff estimates predicted by the model are equal to the computed runoff by the
curve number method times this percent. The difference between the computed runoff
and the actual runoff is added to the infiltration.
Next, the user must select the method of moisture content initialization; that is
whether or not the user wishes to specify the initial moisture storage. If the user answers
"N" (no) to this question, the program assumes near steady-state values and then runs
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the first year of the simulation to improve the initialization to steady-state. The soil
water contents at the end of this year of initialization are taken as the initial values for
the simulation period. The program then runs the complete simulation, starting again at
the beginning of the first year of weather data. The results for the initialization period
are not reported. However, if the user answers " Y" (yes), the user is requested to enter
the amount of water or snow water on the surface in the units selected. Later, the user
should enter the initial moisture content of each layer as explained in the next section.
4.6.3 Landfill Layer Data
The next step in the soil and design data module is to input the design specifications
of the landfill profile, one layer at a time. Layer data are entered in three screens.
These screens have a spreadsheet layout where each row represents a layer. Figure 15
shows the three spreadsheets and their associated screens. The first row of cells on the
screens is the uppermost layer in the landfill. Each column of cells on the screens
represents a variable or a property of the layer or its material. Variable names are listed
in the first two rows of the screen, and the third row contains the units of that variable,
if any. Every highlighted cell is associated with a highlighted property (heading of a
column) and a highlighted layer number (row label). The user should enter the value of
the specified property for the corresponding layer. All entries must obey certain rules
which are discussed below.
Layer Type
The user should input layer type in the first column of the spreadsheet. The four
layer types and their associated code numbers that the program recognizes are vertical
percolation (1), lateral drainage (2), barrier soil liner (3), and geomembrane liner (4).
These are defined as follows:
1. A layer of moderate to high permeability material that drains vertically primarily
as unsaturated flow is classified as a vertical percolation layer as long as it is not
underlain by a liner with a lateral drainage collection and removal system. The
primary purpose of a vertical percolation layer is to provide moisture storage; as
such, top soil layers and waste layers are often vertical percolation layers.
2. A layer of moderate to high permeability material that is underlain by a liner with
a lateral drainage collection and removal system is classified as a lateral drainage
layer. The layer drains vertically primarily as unsaturated flow and laterally as
a saturated flow.
3. A layer of low permeability soil designed to limit percolation/leakage is classified
as a barrier soil liner. The layer drains only vertically as a saturated flow.
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Figure 15. Schematic of Landfill Layer Data
4. A geomembrane (synthetic flexible membrane liner) designed to restrict vertical
drainage and limit leakage is classified as a geomembrane liner. Leakage is
modeled as vapor diffusion and leakage through small manufacturing defects and
installation flaws.
While the HELP program is quite flexible, there are some basic rules regarding the
arrangement of layers in the profile that must be followed.
1. A vertical percolation layer may not be underlying a lateral drainage layer.
2. A barrier soil liner may not be underlying another barrier soil liner.
3. A geomembrane liner may not be placed directly between two barrier soil liners.
4. A geomembrane liner may not be underlying another geomembrane liner.
5. A barrier soil liner may not be placed directly between two geomembrane liners.
6. When a barrier soil liner or a geomembrane liner is not placed directly below the
lowest drainage layer, all drainage layers below the lowest liner are treated as
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vertical percolation layers. Thus, no lateral drainage is computed for the bottom
section of the landfill.
7. The top layer may not be a barrier soil liner.
8. The top layer may not be a geomembrane liner.
9. The profile can contain no more than a total of five barrier soil liners and
geomembrane liners.
The program checks for rule violations only at the time the user saves the data.
Therefore, to reduce the time involved in evaluating a landfill, the user is encouraged to
design a proper layer sequence before saving the data.
In the second column, which has the heading "Layer Thickness," the user should
enter the thickness of each layer in the landfill profile even for the geomembrane liner,
in inches or cm. The values must be greater than zero; a blank cell is taken as a value
of zero. Again, during data verification the program checks for layer thickness of zero
and issues a violation statement when the user tries to save the data.
In the third column, the user should enter the soil texture number of the soil that
forms the layer. The 4 possible options for the user to enter soil texture numbers are:
1. Select from a list of default textures for 42 soils, wastes, geomembranes,
geosynthetics and other materials.
2. Select from a library of user-defined textures that were previously saved and
numbered by the user (up to 100 such textures are allowed).
3. Enter a new soil texture number that can be used again in this design and that can
later be saved in the library of user defined textures (material properties must also
be entered manually for this texture).
4. Leave the texture number blank and enter the material properties manually.
Default Soil/Material Textures
Default soil/material textures have numbers from 1 to 42 and are listed in Table 4.
The user can either type the soil texture number or press F6 to select a texture from the
list of default textures. If the user enters a default soil/material texture number
manually, the program automatically assigns the default values for porosity, field
capacity, wilting point, and hydraulic conductivity to the layer. On the other hand, the
user may press F6 to obtain the list of soil textures on a separate screen. On the soil
texture screen, the user can move the cursor to the desired texture or press Page Down
to display the rest of the default soil textures. After cursoring to the desired texture,
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press Enter to select it. At this time, program control returns to layer spreadsheet screen
and displays the selected soil texture number, along with the porosity, field capacity,
wilting point, and hydraulic conductivity in appropriate cells. Notice that the only
information available for the default geomembrane liners is the hydraulic conductivity
(liner vapor diffusivity). If the user changes any of the four soil properties obtained for
a default soil/material texture, the program automatically resets the soil texture number
to 0. The user can then assign the values a new soil texture number that is not used in
either the list of default or previously saved user defined textures if the user wishes to
save the material characteristics for future use.
As mentioned above, default soil/material textures are obtained by pressing F6 and
are available on all three screens. To move from one screen of default soil/material
textures to another the user should press Page Up or Page Down. To return to the layer
spreadsheet without making a selection, press Esc. A selection is made only by moving
the cursor to the desired soil texture and pressing Enter.
User-Defined SoU Texture
In Version 3 of the HELP model, the user has three options to specify material
characteristics, in addition to selecting soil textures from the default list. One method
is to enter all of the material characteristics manually without specifying a soil texture
number. This method is used when the user does not wish to save these characteristics
for use again in this simulation or future simulations. The second method, which allows
the user to assign a new soil texture number to the manually entered values for the soil
properties, is used when the same characteristics are to be used in future simulations and
the characteristics are to be permanently saved in a library of user-defined textures. A
library of up to 100 soil textures may be saved in a "user-defined soil texture" data file.
The creation and addition of textures to this file are explained in Section 4.6.5 of this
User's Guide. The third method is to select a user-defined texture that was previously
saved in the library. If this library of user-defined soil textures exists, the user can
display the list of available textures for selection by pressing F7. Selecting a user-
defined soil texture for a given layer is identical to that of selecting a default soil/material
textures; the user should move the cursor to the desired soil texture and press Enter. At
this point, program control returns to the layer spreadsheet and displays soil texture
values, porosity, field capacity, wilting point, and hydraulic conductivity of the selected
soil in the layer (row) where F7 was pressed. Also, in the same manner as in default
soil/material textures, the user can simply type the number of the user-defined soil
texture in "Soil Texture No." column of the first screen of the layer spreadsheets, and
the program will automatically obtain the soil characteristics for that soil texture and
place them in the proper location on the layer spreadsheet.
Whenever F7 is pressed, control transfers to the user-defined soil textures. To move
among pages of soil textures press Page Up and Page Down. To make a selection, press
Enter, and to return to the layer spreadsheet without making a selection, press Esc.
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The values entered for the moisture storage parameters in columns 4 through 7 of
the first screen of layer spreadsheets are interrelated. In column 4 toe porosity must be
greater than zero but less than 1. In column 5 the field capacity must be between zero
and 1 but must be smaller than the porosity. In column 6 the wilting point must be
greater than zero but less than the field capacity. In column 7 the initial moisture
content must be greater than or equal to the wilting point and less than or equal to the
porosity. If the user had indicated on the "Landfill General Information" screen that the
program should specify initial moisture content for the soil layers, the program will
ignore all input in column 7. As such, the user does not need to enter data in this
column. On the other hand, if the user had indicated that the user wishes to specify the
initial moisture content, these values must be entered manually. An empty cell is
interpreted as zero for initial moisture, violating the rules. If the layer is a liner, the
program during execution automatically sets the initial water content equal to the porosity
of the layer. The program will detect violations of these values and will report them to
the user during verifications when the data is to be saved to a file.
The second screen of layer spreadsheets can be obtained by pressing Page Down.
On this sheet the user will notice that the layer type is already appearing. In the first
column of cells the saturated hydraulic conductivity must be specified in the appropriate
units (cm/sec). If the soil texture selected was a default soil/material texture or a
user-defined soil texture, the saturated hydraulic conductivity will be displayed in this
column. Remember that changing the saturated hydraulic conductivity causes the soil
texture number on the previous screen to revert to zero in the same manner as changing
any of the other material characteristics (porosity, field capacity or wilting point).
Drainage Layer Design
Information on lateral drainage layer design must be entered manually for each lateral
drainage layer directly above the liner regardless of the method used to enter soil
textures. The required information is the drainage length, drainage layer slope,
recirculation percentage and recirculation destination. These parameters are found in the
second through fifth column of cells on the second spreadsheet screen of layer data.
These columns are used only for the lateral drainage layers directly above the liner; data
placed in rows for other layers will be ignored during execution. The second column of
cells on this second screen of layer data is for entering the maximum drainage length
of lateral drainage layers, which is the length of the horizontal projection of the flow path
down the slope of a liner to the water/leachate collection system. This length must be
greater than zero. In third column of cells the user should enter the drain slope in
percent. This slope is the maximum gradient of the surface of the liner at the base of
the lateral drainage layer; this is the slope along the flow path.
In Version 3, the HELP program allows leachate/drainage recirculation to be
simulated. The amount of leachate/lateral drainage to be recirculated from a given layer
should be entered as a percent of the layer's drainage in the fourth column of cells. The
layer to which this leachate drainage should be recirculated should be entered on the
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same row in the fifth column of cells. The value entered is the number of the layer
receiving recirculation. Layer numbers are those numbers displayed on the left side of
the screen. These numbers are 1 through 20 and refer to the order of the layers in the
profile. The HELP model does not allow leachate recirculation to a liner.
Version 3 of the HELP model also allows the user to specify subsurface inflow into
the landfill from a groundwater source. The amount of subsurface inflow into each layer
should be entered in the last column of the second spreadsheet of layer data and is
considered to be a steady flow rate into the landfill at the layer where the inflow value
is entered. If subsurface inflow is specified for the bottom layer, the program will
assume no leakage through the bottom of the landfill. For most landfills, the inflows will
be zero and this column can be left blank.
After entering the necessary values in the second spreadsheet screen of layer data,
the user should press Page Down to go to the third and last screen of layer data.
Pressing Page Up will return-to the first spreadsheet of layer data, allowing the user to
edit the previously entered values. Again, on the third spreadsheet screen, the layer type
of all layers in the profile are displayed to aid in positioning data on the screen.
Geomembrane liner Design
All of the entries on third screen of layer data pertain to geomembrane liner
properties such as geomembrane linerpinhole density, geomembrane liner installation
defect density, geomembrane tiner placement quality, and associated geotextile
transmissivity (if present). Values must be entered for each geomembrane liner (layer
type 4) in the profile. Guidance on estimating the pinhole and installation defect density
as well as definitions for these parameters is provided in Section 3. The placement
quality options are also described in Section 3 and are presented below. The geotextile
transmissivity should be specified only when a placement quality of 6 is used.
In the third column of cells the user should input the geomembrane liner placement
quality. The HELP program recognizes the following six types of placement quality.
1. Perfect contact
2. Excellent contact
3. Good field placement
4. Poor field placement
5. Bad contact — worst case
6. Geotextile separating geomembrane liner and controlling soil layer
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Typically, placement quality 6 would not be used with a geosynthetic clay liner (GCL)
despite the presence of a geotextile since, upon wetting, the clay extrudes through the
geotextile and provides intimate contact with the geomembrane.
After completing input for one layer, the user can go back to the first spreadsheet
and enter information for other layers. Page Up and Page Down are used to move
backward and forward between spreadsheets. The user may also input values on one
spreadsheet completely filling it, and move on to the next spreadsheet filling in the
information for the layers entered in the first spreadsheet and so on. No blank rows be
left in the spreadsheet between layers; however, if the user does leave some blank lines,
the program will not save these as layers.
Layer Editing
While entering or editing the properties of the layers in the landfill defined in the
three spreadsheets of layer data, the user has the option to add a layer to the profile,
delete a layer, move a layer to another location in the profile, or copy a layer to another
location. When using these layer editing functions, the program operates simultaneously
on all three screens of layer data. This is done by using the following key combinations:
Alt A adds/inserts a layer (either new, being moved or being copied) above the
highlighted layer (where the cursor is positioned)
Alt B adds/inserts a layer (either new, being moved or being copied) below the
highlighted layer (where the cursor is positioned)
Alt D deletes the highlighted layer (where the cursor is positioned)
Alt M tags the highlighted layer (where the cursor is positioned) to be moved
to another location to be designated using the cursor and Alt A or Alt B
Alt C tags the highlighted layer (where the cursor is positioned) to be copied
to another location to be designated using the cursor and Alt A or Alt B
To add a new layer directly above a certain layer, for example above the layer on
line 6 (shown on the left edge of the screen), the user should move the cursor to line 6,
hold the Alt key down, and press A. The result of this action is that a blank line is
inserted above the layer that was at line 6, and the program shifts the layer on line 6 and
all the layers below it one line downward (i.e. layer on line 6 moves to line 7, layer on
line 7 moves to line 8, etc.), and line 6 will be a blank line for the user to enter the
values for the new layer.
To add a layer right below a certain layer, for example below the layer on line 5,
the user should move the cursor to line 5, hold the Alt key down, and press B. The
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result of this action is that a blank line is inserted below line 5, and the program shifts
the layer on line 6 and all the layers below it one line downward (i.e. layer on line 6
moves to line 7, layer on line 7 moves to line 8, etc.), and line 6 will be a blank cell for
the user to enter the value of the new layer.
The Alt D combination causes the program to delete a layer from the list of layers.
For example, to delete the layer on line 3, the user should move the cursor to line 3,
hold the Alt key down and press D. The program will delete all information on line 3
and will shift the layers on lines 4 to 20 upward one line (i.e., layer on line 4 moves to
line 3, layer on line 5 moves to line 4, etc.), and line 20 becomes a blank line. The user
is cautioned that the deleted layer cannot be recovered without quitting and losing all
changes (F9 or Esc).
The copy command allows the user to place a layer that is identical to another layer
on another line. For example, to copy the layer on line 7 to line 2, move the cursor to
line 7 and press the Alt C combination, then move the cursor to line 2 and press the
Alt A combination. This action will cause the program to insert a layer with values the
same as those formerly found at line 7 above the layer formerly found at line 2. The
layers formerly at and below line 2 will be moved downward one line. (The user may
obtain the same result after the Alt C combination by moving to line 1 and pressing the
combination Alt B).
The move command allows the user to move a layer from one row on the screens
of layer data to another row. For example, to move the layer on line 3 above the layer
on line 6, move the cursor to line 3, press the Alt M combination, and move the cursor
to line 6 and press the Alt A combination. This action will cause the layer on line 3 to
be deleted and be placed directly above the layer on line 6. This will cause line 4 to
move up one line to line 3, line 5 to move to line 4 and line 3 to move to line 5; the
other lines will be unchanged. (The user may obtain the same result after the Alt M
combination by moving to line 5 and pressing the combination Alt B).
The Esc key can be used to quit the move and copy functions (after pressing Alt M
or Alt C and before pressing Alt A or Alt B). By editing the data as discussed above,
the user may arrange the order of the layers and run the model to test several possible
configurations.
If the user has 20 lines completely filled with layers and then decides to add or copy
a layer, the layer that is already in line 20 will disappear and cannot be recovered.
Therefore, care must be taken not to add layers that will cause the loss of the layers at
the bottom of the spreadsheet.
When all the layers of the profile are entered, press Page Down from the third layer
spreadsheet to proceed with the rest of the soil and design data entry. Pressing Page Up
from the first layer spreadsheet passes control to the "Landfill General Information"
screen.
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4.6.4 Runoff Curve Number
The "Runoff Curve Number Information" screen may be reached from the third layer
spreadsheet by pressing Page Down, or from the "Landfill General Information" Screen
by pressing Page Up. A schematic of the options associated with the "Runoff Curve
Number Information" screen is shovra in Figure 16. This screen is composed of three
options that can be used to specify the runoff curve number. The first option is to use
an user-specified curve number that the HELP model will use without modification. The
second option is to request the HELP model to modify a user-specified curve number
according to the surface slope and surface slope length. In the third option the user
requests a HELP model computed runoff curve number based on surface slope, slope
length, soil texture of the top layer in the landfill profile, and vegetation. To select one
of these three options, the user should move the cursor to the desired option and press
Enter. This action will cause the program to transfer control down to the box for the
option selected. For each option, the user must input all required information. Although
the user can move from one box to the other (use Tab and Shift Tab keys), care should
be taken to insure that the desired method is the one that will be used by HELP. The
HELP model uses that option in which data was last entered; this option is marked by
a small arrow in front of the option.
USER SPECIFIED
CURVE
NUMBER
MODIFY CURVE
NUMBER FOR
SLOPE AND
SLOPE LENGTH
COMPUTE CURVE
NUMBER BASED ON
SOIL TEXTURE,
SLOPE. SLOPE LENGTH.
AND VEOETATION
Figure 16. Schematic of "Runoff Curve Number Information" Screen Options
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The user should refer to the HELP model documentation for Version 3 for the
techniques used in the computation of the curve number based on slope and slope length.
The value of the slope must be input in percent, and slope length must be input in the
units indicated. If the top layer in the landfill is obtained from the default soil/material
textures, the soil texture number for that layer will be displayed in the appropriate cell
on the screen. The user can solicit help on the vegetation cover by pressing the F2 key.
The only valid entries for the vegetation are 1 through 5, according to the following:
1. Bare ground
2. Poor stand of grass
3. Fair stand of grass
4. Good stand of grass
5. Excellent stand of grass
If the user selects the option that requires the HELP model to compute the curve
number, the program first calculates the SCS runoff curve number for landfills with mild
surface slopes (2 to 5 percent) based on the vegetation type and the soil texture on the
top layer if one of the default soil/material textures is selected (soil texture types 1
through 18, 20 and 22 through 29) in the same manner as Version 2 (Schroeder et al.,
1988b). HELP Version 3 then adjusts the SCS runoff curve number based on the surface
slope and the length of the slope.
4.6.5 Verifying and Saving Soil and Design Data
Pressing F10 anywhere in the soil and design option transfers control to the
"Verification and Saving" screen. This screen provides the user with several options:
verify landfill general design data, verify soil layer/geomembrane properties, verify layer
arrangement, review/save user-defined soil textures, and save soil and design data. The
user can select any of these options by moving the cursor to the option and pressing
Enter. Figure 17 shows the verify and save soil and design data options.
The user can verify the data before attempting to save the data by exercising the first
three options on the "Verification and Saving" screen. These options are available
mainly for the convenience of the new user since experienced users will be familiar with
data requirements and the data will always be verified before saving. To check the data
entered on the general landfill and runoff information screens, the user should select the
first option, "Verify Landfill General Information Design Data." If there are no
violations or warnings, the program will write "OK" to the right of the option; otherwise
the program will list the problems and then write "BAD" to the right of the option.
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SAVE
SOIL*
DESIGN
DATA
FILE
PgUp
Figure 17. Verify and Save Soil and Design Data Options
The user can check the layer descriptions (the values on a row of the third screens
of layer data) by selecting the "Verify Soil Layer/Geomembrane Properties" option. The
program will examine each row for completeness for the type of layer described; for
example, the program will insure that a placement quality was entered for all
geomembrane liners (layer type 4). It will also check for the appropriateness of the
values; for example, it will insure that the porosity is greater than the field capacity. If
there are no violations or warnings, the program will write "OK" to the right of the
option; otherwise the program will list the problems and then write "BAD" to the right
of the option. Similarly, the user can check for violations in the ordering of the layers
from top to bottom based on the layer types specified by selecting the "Verify Layer
Arrangement" option. This option will check the nine rules for ordering of layers; for
example, the program will insure that the top layer is not a liner. This option operates
in the same manner as the verification options.
Another available option on this screen is to review the user defined soil textures that
were used in the landfill profile for inclusion in or deletion from the library of user
defined soil textures. Upon selecting this option, the program lists all of the non-zero
user-defined soil textures used in the profile and allows the user to enter or edit a name
to describe the material in the user soil library. Then after entering the names or labels,
the user should tag all of the soil textures to be included in the library with a " Y" in the
column of cells under the "SAVE" heading. Similarly, the user should tag all of the soil
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textures to be deleted from or not included in the library with a "N" in the column of
cells under the "SAVE" heading. To complete the additions and deletions to the library,
the user should press FJ0; to cancel the additions and deletions and return to the
"Verification and Saving" screen, the user should press Esc or F9.
If the user selects the "Save Soil and Design Data" option, the program automatically
checks for possible violation of rules or errors in the soil and design data. This checking
encompasses verification of presence, arrangement and values entered for the general
landfill information, the landfill profile and layer data, and the runoff curve number
information. The program scans through the three landfill profile spreadsheets of layer
data one layer at a time and reports the errors as they are encountered. If any violations
or inconsistencies are found, the program displays them on multiple screens. The user
should press Enter or Page Down to proceed through the screens and reach the "File
Saving" screen where the data can be saved in a file. If the user wishes to return to
"Verification and Saving" screen, press Esc.
Upon reaching the "File Saving" screen, the user can return to the verification and
input screens to correct violations by editing the data. To return, press Page Up
successively until the desired screen is reached. On the other hand, the user can still
save the data now and make corrections at a later time if there were violations.
However, it should not be expected that the HELP model will provide meaningful
answers for such data.
Soil and design data are saved in a file specified on the "Soil and Design Data - File
Saving" screen. The program displays the default file name, DATA 10, for saving in the
default directory. DATA 10 is the same name for the soil and design data as used in
Version 2 except that Version 3 adds an extension of .D10 to the specified soil and
design data file name. To save the data, the user should enter "Y" in the "Save"
column. Then, the user should specify the directory in which to save the file. If the
directory cannot be found, the program responds "Invalid Directory" and replaces it with
the default directory. After the directory, the user should enter the file name (no
extension or period). If the file already exists, the program will display "File Already
Exists." After entering the file name, the user should press F10 or Page Down to
complete the saving to the requested file name. If the file already exists as the default
file would, the program will ask whether the user wishes to have the existing file
overwritten. If the user answers "Y", the program will overwrite the file, complete the
saving process and return to the main menu. If the user answers "N", the program will
interrupt the saving, return to the "SAVE" column and change the tag to "N". The user
can then change the tag back to "Y", rename the file, and restart the saving by pressing
F10 or Page Down. The program provides other options listed on the "File Saving"
screen to provide the means for the user to display a directory of existing soil and design
data files (F4), to return to the data entry screens (Page Up) or to return to the main
menu without saving the data (F9). The user must be cautioned that the F9 option will
cause all the data created (if any) to be lost. Figure 17 shows the available options.
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4.7 EXECUTING THE SIMULATION
Option 3 on the main menu is "Execute Simulation". This option is composed of
two primary screens: "Execution Files - File Management" screen and "Output
Selection" screen and is shown schematically in Figure 18.
Execution Files
This screen is used to define the weather and soil and design data files that contain
the data to be used in the HELP model simulation. Six files must be specified to run
HELP model. The input data files required are a precipitation data file, a temperature
data file, a solar radiation data file, an evapotranspiration data file, and a soil and design
data file; and for output, the HELP model requires one file on which the results are to
be written.
The user must enter the file names without extension since the HELP model
recognizes the following extensions for the various types of files:
.D4 for precipitation data
.D7 for temperature data
.Dll for evapotranspiration data
.D13 for solar radiation data
.D10 for soil and design data
.OUT for the output
When the program initially displays the "Execution Files - File Management" screen,
the program lists the default directory name in each cell in the directory column and the
file names of each type of data that were used in the last simulation. The user should
enter the directory, if different than the default directory, for each type of file. If an
invalid directory is entered, the program displays the message "Invalid Directory" and
replaces the directory with the default directory. If user enters a file name that could not
be found on the specified directory, then the program displays the message "File Not
Found" and erases the file name.
As shown in Figure 18, the user may obtain a list of all files that reside on the
current directory by pressing F4. When the user presses F4, the program obtains a
directory of all files that pertain to the type of file at the cell where F4 was pressed. For
example, if F4 was pressed from the temperature file cell, the program will display the
list of files with extension D7 that reside on the current directory displayed in
temperature file row. Up to 120 data files for any file type can be displayed on a
77
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PROCEED
TO NEXT
SCREEN
OR RUN
SIMULATION
RETURN TO
PREVIOUS
SCREEN
Figure 18. Schematic of "Execute Simulation" Option
separate screen. The name of the current directory where these files are located is also
displayed. The user can obtain the list of data files with the same extension that are
available in another valid directory by entering the name of that directory in the column
labeled DIRECTORY and on the same row as the file type of interest.
To select a file from the list of displayed files, move the cursor to the file and select
it by pressing Enter. This transfers control back to the previous screen and the name of
the file just selected will be displayed in the proper cell. The user can exit the
list-of-files screen without selecting a file by pressing the Esc key.
Once file names have been selected, the user can proceed to the next screen of the
execution module by pressing Page Down or F10. If the output file already exists, the
user is prompted with a warning indicating that this file already exists. The program
then asks whether the file should be overwritten. If the user answers "N", the program
moves the cursor to the output file name cell so that the user can enter a new file name.
If the user answers "Y", the program proceeds to the "Output Selection" screen. Before
displaying the next screen, the program reads the weather data files to determine the
maximum allowable simulation period.
Output Selection
On this screen, the user selects the units of the HELP model output, the number of
78
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years to simulate, and the output frequency. The user may use a maximum of 100 years
of simulation provided that weather data are available for that many years. If the
weather data in the selected files have a different number of years, the HELP model
allows the simulation period to be no larger than the minimum number of years available
in any of the daily weather data files. If the simulation period selected is smaller than
the maximum allowable period, the program will use the years of weather data starting
at the top of the files.
The rest of the information available on this screen is for selecting the type of
optional output desired (daily, monthly or annual). The user may select any, all or none
of the available options. The program will always write the summary output to the
output file as well as a description of the input data. In order to select additional or
different output frequencies, move the cursor to the desired output frequency and type
"Y". Once all execution files and output frequency data are selected, the user should
press Page Down or F10 to start the simulation. To move back to the "Execution Files"
screen, press Page Up.
4.8 VIEWING RESULTS
Option 4 on the main menu is to view the results of execution. This option is used
to browse through the output file before printing. Figure 19 is a schematic of this
option. The program displays the "View Results" screen. The user should enter the
desired directory and file name. The file name can be selected from a list of files by
pressing F4. After selecting the file, press Page Down or F10 to display the selected
file. The viewing function uses the LIST program written by Vernon D. Buerg and
instructions on its use are available on screen by typing ? or Fl. To display other types
of files, first enter the extension of the file of interest, then the directory and the file
name. To return to the main menu, press Page Down or F10.
4.9 PRINTING RESULTS
Option 5 on the main menu is used to print the output file. Figure 20 is a schematic
of this option. The program displays the "Print Results" screen. The user should enter
the desired directory and file name. The file name can be selected from a list of files
by pressing F4. After selecting the file, press Page Down or F10 to print the selected
file. The print function uses the DOS PRINT command and instructions on its use are
available in a DOS manual. The output file is 80 characters wide for all output options
except daily output, which can be up to 132 characters wide. When printing output with
daily results, it may be necessary to select a compressed font on your printer before
printing to avoid wrapping or loss of output.
To print other types of files, first enter the extension of the file of interest, then the
directory and the file name. To return to the main menu, press Page Down or F10.
79
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PgDn
Figure 19. Schematic of "View Results" Option
Alternatively, the output file or any data file, which are ASCII text files, could be
imported into other software such as word processors and printed in the format desired.
Similarly, the output, in total or part, can be printed within the Viewing Option using the
LIST program and blocking sections to be printed.
Figure 20. Schematic of "Print Results" Option
80
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4.10 DISPLAYING GUIDANCE
On-line help is provided throughout the program. However, option 6 on the main
menu gives an overview of the HELP program, as well as, general criteria for landfill
design and guidance on using the model. Most of this user guide is displayed in this
option and the guidance refers to figures and tables in this guide. In addition, the on-line
guidance uses the same section numbering as this guide.
4.11 QUITTING HELP
Option 7 on the main menu is to quit the HELP program and return to DOS.
81
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REFERENCES
Arnold, J. G., Williams, J. R., Nicks, A. D., and Sammons, N. B. (1989). "SWRRB,
A basin scale simulation model for soil and water resources management," Texas A&M
University Press, College Station, TX. 142 pp.
Breazeale, E., and McGeorge, W. T. (1949). "A new technic for determining wilting
percentage of soil," Soil Science 68, 371-374.
Brooks, R. H., and Corey, A. T. (1964). "Hydraulic properties of porous media,"
Hydrology Papers (3), Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. 27 pp.
England, C. B. (1970). "Land capability: A hydrologic response unit in agricultural
watersheds," ARS 41-172, USDA Agricultural Research Service. 12 pp.
Harpur, W. A., Wilson-Fahmy, R. F., and Koerner, R. M. (1993). "Evaluation of the
contact between geosynthetic clay liners and geomembranes in terms of transmissivity,"
Proceeedings of GR1 Seminar on Geosynthetic Liner Systems, Geosynthetic Research
Institute, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA. 143-154.
Knisel, W. J., Jr., Editor. (1980). "CREAMS, A field scale model for chemicals,
runoff, and erosion from agricultural management systems, volumes I, II and HI."
USDA-SEA, Conservation Research Report 26. 643 pp.
Lutton, R. J., Regan, G. L., and Jones, L. W. (1979). "Design and construction of
covers for soil waste landfills," EPA-600/2-79-165, US Environmental Protection
Agency, Cincinnati, OH. 249 pp.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. (1974). Climatic atlas of the United
States. US Department of Commerce, Environmental Science Services Administration,
Nation Climatic Center, Ashville, NC. 80 pp.
Perrier, E. R., and Gibson, A. C. (1980). "Hydrologic simulation on solid waste
disposal sites," EPA-SW-868, US Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH.
Ill pp.
Rawls, W. J., Brakensiek, D. L., and Saxton, K. E. (1982). "Estimation of soil water
properties," Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers 25(5), 1316-
1320.
Richardson, C. W., and Wright, D. A. (1984). "WGEN: A model for generating daily
weather variables," ARS-8, USDA Agricultural Research Service. 83 pp.
82
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Ruffner, J. A. (1985). Climates of the states, National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration narrative summaries, tables, and maps for each state, volume 1 Alabama -
New Mexico and volume 2 New York - Wyoming and territories. Gale Research
Company, Detroit, MI. 758 pp. and 1572 pp.
Schroeder, P. R., and Gibson, A. C. (1982). "Supporting documentation for the
hydrologic simulation model for estimating percolation at solid waste disposal sites
(HSSWDS)," Draft Report, US Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH.
153 pp.
Schroeder, P. R., Gibson, A. C., and Smolen, M. D. (1984). "The hydrologic
evaluation of landfill performance (HELP) model, volume H, documentation for version
1," EPA/530-SW-84-010, US Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH
256 pp.
Schroeder, P. R., Peyton, R. L., McEnroe, B. M., and Sjostrom, J. W. (1988). "The
hydrologic evaluation of landfill performance (HELP) model: Volume III. User's guide
for version 2," Internal Working Document EL-92-1, Report 1, US Army Engineer
Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, MS. 87 pp.
Schroeder, P. R., McEnroe, B. M., Peyton, R. L., and Sjostrom, J. W. (1988). "The
hydrologic evaluation of landfill performance (HELP) model: Volume IV.
Documentation for version 2," Internal Working Document EL-92-1, Report 2, US Army
Engineer Waterways Experiment Station, Vicksburg, MS. 72 pp.
Schroeder, P. R., Dozier, T. S., Zappi, P. A., McEnroe, B. M., Sjostrom, J.W., and
Peyton, R.L. (1994). "The hydrologic evaluation of landfill performance (HELP)
model: Engineering documentation for version 3," EPA/600/8-94/xxx, US
Environmental Protection Agency, Cincinnati, OH. 105 pp.
USDA, Soil Conservation Service. (1985). "Chapter 9, hydrologic soil-cover
complexes." National engineering handbook, section 4, hydrology. US Government
Printing Office, Washington, D.C. 11 pp.
83
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Darilek, G. T., Laine, D. L., and Parra, J. O. (1989). "The electrical leak location
method geomembrane liners: Development and applications." Geosynthetics '89
Conference Proceedings. San Diego, CA, 456-466.
Giroud, J. P., and Bonaparte, R. (1989). "Leakage through liners constructed with
geomembranes — part I. Geomembrane liners," Geotextiles and Geomembranes 8(1),
27-67.
Giroud, J. P., and Bonaparte, R. (1989). "Leakage through liners constructed with
geomembranes — part n. Composite liners," Geotextiles and Geomembranes 8(2),
71-111.
Giroud, J. P., Khatami, A., and Badu-Tweneboah, K. (1989). "Evaluation of the rate
of leakage through composite liners," Geotextiles and Geomembranes 8(4), 337-340.
McEnroe, B. M., and Schroeder, P. R. (1988). "Leachate collection in landfills:
Steady case," Journal of the Environmental Engineering Division 114(5), 1052-1062.
Oweis, I. S., Smith, D. A., Ellwood, R. B., and Greene, D. S. (1990). "Hydraulic
characteristics of municipal refuse," Journal of Geotechnical Engineering 116(4),
539-553.
US Environmental Protection Agency. (1985). "Covers for uncontrolled hazardous
waste sites," EPA/540/2-85/002, Hazardous Waste Engineering Research Laboratory,
Cincinnati, OH. 529 pp.
US Environmental Protection Agency. (1988). "Guide to technical resources for the
design of land disposal facilities," EPA/625/6-88/018, Risk Reduction Engineering
Laboratory, Cincinnati, OH. 63 pp.
US Environmental Protection Agency. (1989). "Technical guidance document: Final
covers for hazardous waste landfills and surface impoundments," EPA/530-SW-89-047,
Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, Washington, D.C. 39 pp.
84
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APPENDIX A
CALCULATING SOIL, WASTE AND MATERIAL PROPERTIES
A.I BACKGROUND
The HELP program requires values for the total porosity, field capacity, wilting
point, and saturated hydraulic conductivity of each layer of soil, waste, or other material
in a landfill profile. These values can be selected from a list of default materials
provided by the HELP program (Table 4) or specified by the user. User-specified values
can be measured, estimated, or calculated using empirical or semi-empirical methods
presented in this appendix. Selecting the HELP values from default materials or
calculating them based on empirical or semi-empirical techniques are not intended to
replace laboratory or field generated data. Default and calculated values are suitable for
planning purposes, parametric studies, and design comparisons, but are not recommended
for accurate water balance predictions. The default and calculated values are for water
retention and flow; therefore, leachate is assumed to behave the same as water. The
effects of macropores resulting from poor construction practices, burrowing animals,
desiccation cracks, etc. are not taken into account in the calculation of the properties or
in the default values, but the saturated hydraulic conductivity of the surface soil described
by the default values is modified for grassy vegetation.
A.2 EMPIRICAL METHOD
The empirical method for calculating HELP program user-defined values employs
empirical equations reported by Brakensiek et al. (1984) and Springer and Lane (1987)
to determine soil water retention parameters (field capacity and wilting point) and an
empirical equation developed by Kozeny-Carman to determine saturated hydraulic
conductivity. The total porosity and percent sand, silt, and clay of each layer is the
minimum data required to calculate user-defined values using this method.
A.2.1 Total Porosity
Total porosity is a measure of the volume of void (water and air) space in the bulk
volume of porous media. At 100 percent saturation, total porosity is equivalent to the
volumetric water content of the media (volume of water per total volume of media) or
Total Porosity =
Water Volume
Total Volume
(A-l)
A-l
-------
r
Total porosity can be calculated by developing a solid, liquid, and air phase
relationship of each layer. This relationship can be calculated using the water content
(on a weight basis) and density (wet or dry) of a sample. Introductory geotechnical
engineering textbooks such as Holtz and Kovacs (1981) and Perloff and Baron (1976)
provide detail guidance for determining phase relationships. Total porosity is also related
to void ratio (ratio of void volume to solid volume) by the following equation:
Total Porosity =
Void Ratio
1 + Void Ratio
(A-2)
A.2.2 So'il-Water Retention
Field capacity is the volumetric water content of a soil or waste layer at a capillary
pressure of 0.33 bars. Field capacity is also referred to as the volumetric water content
of a soil remaining following a prolonged period of gravity drainage. Wilting point is
the volumetric water content of a soil or waste layer at a capillary pressure of 15 bars.
Wilting point is also referred to as the lowest volumetric water content that can be
achieved by plant transpiration. The general relation among soil moisture retention
parameters and soil texture class is shown below.
I
§
I
o
u
a:
I
0.60
0.50 -
0.40 -
0.30 -
0.20 -
0.10 -
0.00
SAND SANDY LOAM SILTY CLAY SILTY CLAY
LOAM LOAM LOAM CLAY
Figure A-21. General Relation Among Soil Moisture Retention Properties
and Soil Texture Class
A-2
-------
Brakensiek et al. (1984) and Springer and Lane (1987) reported the following
empirical equations, which were developed using data from natural soils with a wide
range of sand (5-70 percent) and clay (5-60 percent) content:
Field Capacity = 0.1535 - (0.0018)(% Sand) + (0.0039)(% Clay) +
(0.1943)(Total Porosity)
(A-3)
Wilting Point = 0.0370 - (0.0004)(% Sand) + (0.0044)(% Clay) +
(0.0482)(Total Porosity)
(A-4)
Sand and clay percentages should be determined using a grain size distribution chart and
particle sizes defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture textural soil classification
system. According to this system, sand particles range in size from 0.05 mm to 2.0 mm,
silt particles from 0.002 mm to 0.05 mm, and clay particles are less than 0.002 mm.
Numerous other equations relating field capacity and wilting point to soil textural
properties have been developed. Most of these equation were developed using site-
specific data. However, Gupta and Larson (1979) developed empirical equations for
field capacity and wilting point using data from separate and mixed samples of dredged
sediment and soil from 10 geographic locations in eastern and central United States.
Rawls and Brakensiek (1982) and Rawls et al. (1982) also developed empirical equations
by fitting the Brooks and Corey's (1964) soil water retention equation to soil water
retention and matrix potential data from 500 natural soils in 18 states. Rawls' (1982)
equations are not applicable to soils subjected to compactive efforts.
Williams et al. (1992) concluded that equations used to predict water contents based
on texture and bulk density alone provided poorer estimates of water content, with large
errors at some capillary pressures, in comparison with models that incorporate even one
known value of water content. HELP users generally do not have adequate information
to use models that require unsaturated water content information; therefore, Equations
A-3 and A-4 are used to calculate the water retention of soil and waste layers.
A.2.3 Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity
Saturated hydraulic conductivity (sometimes referred to as the coefficient of
permeability) is used as a constant in Darcy's law governing flow through porous media.
Hydraulic conductivity is a function of media properties, such as the particle size, void
ratio, composition, fabric and degree of saturation, and the kinematic viscosity of the
fluid moving through the media. Saturated hydraulic conductivity is used to describe
flow through porous media where the void spaces are filled with a wetting fluid (e.g.
water). Permeability, unlike saturated hydraulic conductivity, is solely a function of
A-3
-------
media properties. Henri Darcy's experiments resulted in the following equation for
hydraulic conductivity (Freeze and Cherry, 1979):
K = [! C d2
(A-5)
where
K
g
v
C
hydraulic conductivity, cm/sec
acceleration due to gravity, 981 cm/sec2
kinematic viscosity of water, 1.14 x 10'2 cnWsec at 15 °C
proportionality constant, replaced in Equation A-6 by a function of the
porosity
d = particle diameter, cm, approximated for nonuniform particles by Equation A-7
Darcy's proportionality constant is dependent on the shape and packing of the soil
grains (Freeze and Cherry, 1979). Since porosity represents an integrated measure of
the packing arrangement in a porous media, the following semi-empirical, uniform pore-
size equation relating Darcy's proportionality constant and porosity was developed by
Kozeny-Carman (Freeze and Cherry, 1979):
K -
'" v
(I-/,)2
1.80X10* ,
(A-6)
where
K,
g
v
n
d. =
saturated hydraulic conductivity, cm/sec
acceleration due to gravity = 981 cm/sec2
kinematic viscosity of water, 1.14 x 10'2 cm2/sec at 15°C
total porosity
geometric mean soil particle diameter, mm, computed by Equation A-7
The original Kozeny equation was obtained from a theoretical derivation of Darcy's
Law where the porous media was treated as a bundle of capillary tubes (Bear 1972).
Carman introduced an empirical coefficient to Kozeny's equation to produce the semi-
empirical Kozeny-Carman equation (Brutsaert 1967). The Kozeny-Carman's equation
reported in Freeze and Cherry (1979) was altered to allow the mean particle size to be
entered in millimeters.
Freeze and Cherry (1979) indicated that the particle diameter of a non-uniform soil
can be described using a mean particle size diameter. Shirazi and Boersma (1984)
A-4
-------
indicated that geometric rather than arithmetic statistical properties are advocated for
describing soil samples. The reason, in part, is that there is a wide range of particle
sizes in a natural soil sample making the geometric scale much more suitable than the
arithmetic scale. Therefore, the mean particle diameter in Kozeny-Carman's equation
reported in Freeze and Cherry (1979) was identified as the geometric mean soil particle
diameter.
Shirazi et al. (1988) and Shiozawa and Campbell (1991) indicated that bimodal
models describe particle grain size curves more accurately than unimodal models.
However, analysis performed by Shiozawa and Campbell (1991) on six Washington state
soils exhibiting varying sand, silt, and clay fractions indicated that the unimodal model
accurately predicted the geometric mean soil particle diameter in all soils tested.
Therefore, Shiozawa and Campbell (1991) developed an equation for geometric mean soil
particle diameter by using the unimodal model developed by Shirazi and Boersma (1984);
using geometric mean particles sizes based on the USDA classification system, as
recommended by Shirazi, et al. (1988); and assuming that the soil was composed entirely
of clay, silt, and sand. Shiozawa and Campbell's (1991) equation was altered to relate
percent silt and clay to the particle diameter; resulting in the following equation:
dg = exp [-1.151 - 0.07713 (% Clay) - 0.03454 (% Silt)]
(A-7)
where
dg — geometric mean soil particle diameter, mm
Percent silt and clay should be determined using a grain size distribution chart and grain
sizes defined by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) textural soil classification
system (see para A.2.2).
Kozeny-Carman's equation coupled with Shiozuwa and Campbell's equation for mean
diameter was applied to soils data provided by Lane and Washburn (1946). These data
included void ratio and grain size distribution curves for three soils composed of differing
degrees of silt and sand. The saturated hydraulic conductivity predicted by Kozeny-
Carman's equation was compared with laboratory data provided by Lane and Washburn
(1946). This comparison indicated that Kozeny-Carman's saturated hydraulic
conductivity equation coupled with Shiozuwa and Campbell's mean diameter equation can
overpredict measured values by one to two orders of magnitude. Although conservative,
these results reemphasize the fact that semi-empirical equations are not meant to replace
laboratory or field measured data.
Numerous other empirical equations, with limited application, have been developed
to estimate saturated hydraulic conductivity from the physical properties of soils. For
example, Freeze and Cherry (1979), Holtz and Kovacs (1981), and Lambe and Whitman
(1969) presented various forms of Allen Hazen's equation for determining the saturated
hydraulic conductivity of silt, sand, and gravel soils. Rawls and Brakensiek (1985) also
A-5
-------
presented an equation for determining the saturated hydraulic conductivity of soils with
varying degrees of sand (5-70 percent) and clay (5-60 percent).
A.3 SEMI-EMPIRICAL METHOD
The semi-empirical method for determining the HELP program user-defined values
employs a theoretical equation developed by Brooks and Corey (1964) to determine soil-
water retention parameters (field capacity and wilting point) and a semi-empirical
equation developed by Brutsaert (1967) and Rawls et al. (1982) to calculate saturated
hydraulic conductivity. The total porosity, residual volumetric water content, pore-size
distribution index, and bubbling pressure of each layer are the minimum data required
to calculate the user-defined values for this method. As previously mentioned, total
porosity can be calculated using Equation A-l or A-2.
A.3.1 Soil-Water Retention
The HELP program does not allow the user to define the Brooks-Corey parameters
(residual volumetric water content, pore-size distribution index, and bubbling pressure)
of the soil, waste, or barrier layers; therefore, if these data are available, the user must
first calculate field capacity and wilting point using Brooks and Corey's (1964) water
retention equation:
e-er
* -er
(A-8)
where
0
•• volumetric water content (field capacity or wilting point), unitless
6r = residual saturation volumetric water content, unitless
4> — total porosity, unitless
X = pore-size distribution index, unitless
^ = capillary pressure, bars (at field capacity, 0.33, or wilting point, 15.0)
tyb = bubbling pressure, bars
The volumetric water content in Equation A-8 is, by definition, equivalent to field
capacity at a capillary pressure of 0.33 bar and is equivalent to wilting point at a
capillary pressure of 15 bars. The HELP program will use the calculated field capacity
and wilting point values to recalculate the Brooks-Corey parameters; however, because
the program estimates the residual saturation water content from the wilting point before
using Equation A-8 to calculate the other Brooks-Corey parameters, the program values
will differ slightly from the laboratory data.
A-6
-------
A.3.2 Saturated Hydraulic Conductivity
Brutsaert (1967) derived a saturated hydraulic conductivity relation by substituting
Brooks-Corey's water retention equation into the Childs and Collis-George (1950) series-
parallel coefficient of permeability integral. Rawls et al. (1982 and 1983) presented the
following form of Brutsaert's (1967) equation:
K,=a
(A.+!)(>•+2)
(A-9)
where
a =
e, =
x =
saturated hydraulic conductivity, cm/sec
constant representing the effects of various fluid constants
and gravity, 21 cm3/sec
total porosity, unitless
residual volumetric water content, unitless
bubbling pressure, cm
pore-size distribution index, unitless
Childs and Collis-George's (1950) series-parallel coefficient of permeability model
assumes that the porous media is equivalent to a number of parallel portions each with
a different hydraulic conductivity and each with uniform pore size. The hydraulic
conductivity of each portion is obtained from the assumption of a bundle of capillary
tubes parallel to the direction of flow. The media is fractured at a normal plane with two
resulting faces, which are then rejoined after some random displacement (Brutsaert,
1967).
Rawls et al. (1982) fit Equation A-9 (using geometric mean values for Brooks-Corey
parameters) to saturated hydraulic conductivity values from their data base and obtained
a good correlation between these and predicted values. Rawls et al. (1982) and Rawls
et al. (1983) subsequently recommended using an "a" constant of 21 cm/sec. However,
Rawls et al. (1982) fit Equation A-9 to data presented by other researchers and obtained
saturated hydraulic conductivities that overpredicted the data by three to four times.
Although conservative, these results re-emphasize the fact that empirical equations are
not meant to replace laboratory or field measured data.
A.4 VEGETATED, SATURATED HYDRAULIC CONDUCTIVITY
If the saturated hydraulic conductivity of a soil or waste layer is not selected from
the HELP default data base, the program will not adjust the saturated hydraulic
conductivity to account for root penetration by surface vegetation. Therefore, the user
A-7
-------
r
must adjust the saturated hydraulic conductivity in the top half of the evaporative zone.
The program adjusts the default values using the following equation developed by
regressing changes in infiltration resulting from vegetation.
(KJ, = [1.0 + 0.5966 (LAI) + 0.132659 (LAI? + 0.1123454 (LAI)3
- 0.04777627 (LAI)4 + 0.004325035 (LAI)5] (KJ
where
(A-10)
LAI =
vegetated saturated hydraulic conductivity in top half
of evaporative zone, cm/sec
leaf area index, unitless
unvegetated saturated hydraulic conductivity in top half
of evaporative zone, cm/sec
A.5 CONCLUSIONS
The HELP program user-defined values for total porosity, field capacity, wilting
point, and saturated hydraulic conductivity can be conservatively calculated using
empirical or semi-empirical methods presented in this appendix. Total porosity, percent
sand, silt and clay, and particle diameter are the minimum data required to calculate
user-defined values using the empirical method. Total porosity and Brooks-Corey
parameters are the minimum data required for the semi-empirical method. Where
available, comparisons with measured values re-emphasized the fact that neither of these
methods is intended to replace laboratory or field generated data.
A.6 REFERENCES
Bear, J. (1972). Dynamics of fluids in porous media. American Elsevier Publishing
Company, New York. 764 pp.
Brakensiek, D. L., Rawls, W. J., and Stephenson, G. R. (1984). "Modifying SCS
hydrologic soil groups and curve numbers for rangeland soils." Annual meeting of the
American society of agricultural engineers, Pacific northwest region. Kennewick, WA,
USDA-ARS, Paper Number PNR-84-203. 13 pp.
Brooks, R. H., and Corey, A. T. (1964). "Hydraulic properties of porous media,"
Hydrology Papers (3), Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO. 27 pp.
Brutsaert, W. (1967). "Some methods of calculating unsaturated permeability,"
Transactions of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers 10(3), 400-404.
A-8
-------
Childs, E. C., and Collis-George, N. (1950). "The permeability of porous material,"
Proceeding of the Royal Society 201, Section A.
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