Rate of liquid flow through composite liners due to defects in the geomembrane: Recent advances

Abstract

This paper presents the recent advances on the existing methods for evaluating the rate of advective flow through composite liners. The advective flow is due to the existence of defects in the geomembrane and depends on the features of interface between the geomembrane and the underlying liner, which can be expressed either by the interface transmissivity, or by contact conditions. Direct methods (laboratory tests), and indirect methods (analytical equations, empirical and semi-empirical equations and numerical analysis) are addressed. The main goal of this work is to provide design engineers with a review of the tools currently available to calculate the advective flow through composite liners.