Short-term durability of elastomeric bituminous geomembranes at 70°C: A comparison of the effect of immersion methods

Abstract

A custom-designed apparatus is used to age a 4.8-mm thick bituminous geomembrane (BGM) under single-sided exposure to a synthetic mining solution (pH13.5) at 70oC over a 6-months period. These experiments involve exposing the BGM from the bitumen coat surface only to simulate the BGM’s chemical exposure conditions in the field. The degradation in the tensile and chemical properties of the BGM is compared to double-sided immersed coupons in which the BGM is exposed to the solution from both surfaces. The preliminary results show that the degradation rate of the mechanical properties of the BGM is higher in the double-sided immersion test than single-sided immersion test. However, the difference in the degradation rates of the chemical properties of the bitumen coat between the double-sided and single-sided immersed BGM samples was insignificant.