Leakage through Geomembranes in GCL and CCL Liners

• Abbas El-Zein
• Prof. R Kerry Rowe, Queen's University, Canada

Geomembranes are effective barriers to contaminant migration in soils. However, leakage through defects in the geomembranes and diffusion of organic compounds through its intact parts reduces its insulating capacity.

While regulators and practitioners have attempted to keep a lid on the rate of water leakage through these defects, little is known about the impact of defects on groundwater quality and their implications for liner designs.

The project develops innovative finite-element techniques for more advanced modelling of the multi-layered and highly heterogeneous nature of the liner and surrounding soils in order a. to assess the impact of leakage on groundwater and the viability of simple 1D models of contamination in the presence of leakage and b. to develop liner designs which offset a priori the effects of leakage. A by-product of this work is the development of an interactive simulation system for the analysis of liner systems in 2D.