eons and Geomerranes 3 (2013) 1-8 ‘Contents ists available at SeVerse ScienceDirect Geotextiles and Geomembranes journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locata/gaotexmem Thermal conductivity of geosynthetics Rao Martand Singh ', Abdelmalek Bouazza” Depron of Ci het tg 6, Monh nies Helou, 3002 Awe ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT rie ir Aecewed 3 Aust 212 Beceed in eed 1 Say 208 Accepted 5 une 2013 ‘valle ontne 2 Joy 2013 “Thermal conductivity ea ey propery that controls heat nigration Ina variety of applications inkling municipal solié waste andjor minnglindustrial containment facilis. In particular, heat may be encountered in cases where geosyntetc lining systems are exposed to clevated temperatnres de 10 ther waste Hodegadaton, sla addon, or mining processes Ths paper presents the results ofan experimental investigation on thermal conductivity of nrwoven geotextles, geosyathotc ely lines fn an HDPE geomembrane. A steady state method was used to meas the thermal condctity of Fam lected mater of hese materi The thermal eanduetvty ofthe HDPE geomebrane was and 10 ee be consistent with the thermal conductiviy of HDPE pelymet. On the other band, the thermal con Genreneane dcr of the nonwoven geotestles depended on water content and whether they ate drophobe or Gestxtie. hnydophilc The form of bentonite, ts mass per area and water content affected the thermal conductivity Thermal ondscey of GCL. The results presented in tis paper prowade a lower bound of thermal conductvtes of #80 Steady sate method synthesis routinely used in waste containment facies, (© 2013 Elsevier Ld All ight eserved 1. Introduction Geosynthetc barrier components such as geomembranes (GM) and geosynthetic cay lets (GCLs) are extensively used in waste Containment facies either as par of cover ning or botwom fining. ‘stems. Their aim i to reduce water ingress into the containment and ocontrol gas mgrationin the case ofthe cover inersand co limit Contaminant migration to levels that will result in negligible impact in the case of bottom liners. Geotexiles (GT) are also used in Containment facilities either as filttation/separation medium of protection co the geomembrane. In this respec large body of work. fs available on various aspects related to the physical andjor the hnydro-mechanicaland chemical performance ofthese geosynthetics. However, new issues [ie, heat ransfer and heat civen moisture flow in composite liners, desiccation of compacted day liners (CCls) or bentonite component of GCL, thermo-mechanical behaviour of GCs (Southen and Rowe, 2005, 2071; Abuel-Naga and Bouazza, 2013; Bouazza et al, 2013) etc] are emerging as we are gaining a betier understanding of the physico-chemical phenom- {enon (aking placein municipal sold waste anils and also as the ‘ase of geosynthetics is extended to applications where they ae * Covesponding author Tel: +518 9405 4956 fx: +618 0905 5088 Eze wae ehomnet. fe.) mache ies 16139905 1; fe 68 005 4044, (200-1148 — ae fo mater © 201 levies a, Aight eee, pong 001) geome. 2013 6002 stbjected to more aggressive conditions such asin mining or in- dosrial applications (Homsey et al, 2010: Bouazza, 2010; Fourie et al, 2010; Liu et al, 2013). These issues are mostly related to the presence of heat in the containment and the corresponding. impact on the hydro-mechanical and chemical behaviour of the Tining systems. Biologieal Cecomposition of municipal solid. waste in a landfill generates significant amount of heat de to its high organic content and may raise the temperature within the waste mass to 60 °C ‘under normal landfill operations (Yesller etal, 2005; Rowe, 2005; Koemer and Koerner, 2006; Rowe and Hoor, 2003; Rowe et al, 2010; Bouazza et al, 2011; Southen and Rowe, 2011; Hoor and owe, 2012). Even higher temperatures, up to 70°C, may occur at he base of landfills if chere i a significant leachate mound within the landfill(Yoshiaet al, 1996). The application of geesyntheticsin 2 mining environment (ex, uranium mill facility liners, brine evaporation ponds, heap leach pads, waste rock dumps, etc.) can ‘expose them to even higher temperatures (up to 80 °C) generated from the varius ore extraction processes (Thiel and Smith, 2004; Bouazza, 2010; Homsey et al, 2010; Cassner and Scheits, 2010) Solar ponds liners can experience cemperataes ranging ftom 50°C {090°C {Lu et al. 2001), xposed geosynthetic such asin side wall liners can also be subjected to high temperatures (up to 70 °C) ‘caused by sola radiation (Take e al, 2012) ‘Aboel-Naga and Bouszza (2013) indicated that the fong-term thermo-mechanical performance of liners can be affected by high temperatare variations and thermal gradients typically