Detecting leaks in geomembranes
- Leak Location Services, Inc., San Antonio, TX (United States)
This article reports on an electrical method can detect and locate leaks in geomembrane liners at new landfills and surface impoundment, even though the leaks may be pin-sized holes. A field-tested leak-locations survey, now commercially available, can provide construction quality assurance or solve a leakage problem in lined landfills, impoundments or tanks. A linear leak in a waste containment facility can be costly. The facility owner may face environmental cleanup costs and a loss of revenue while the leakage problem is being solved. Also, a new facility that exceeds the allowable leak rate, as defined in the design/operating permit, may not be accepted by the facility owner until the leakage problem is solved. This start-up delay may cause additional expenses or penalties for the general contractor, liner installer, and design engineering firm. This leak-location method involves connecting an electrical power supply to electrodes placed above and below a geomembrane to detect areas of localized electrical-current flow through leaks in the liner. If there are no leaks in the geomembrane, a very low current will flow across the liner producing relatively uniform voltage distribution in the material above the liner. If the liner has a leak, the current flows through the leak, causing an anomaly in the electrical distribution. Leaks are located by searching for these areas.
- OSTI ID:
- 6029562
- Journal Information:
- Civil Engineering ASCE; (United States), Vol. 63:8; ISSN 0360-0556
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
Similar Records
Sealing leaks in geomembrane liners using electrophoresis
Electrical response of a leak in a geomembrane liner