Balsas de Tenerife (BALTEN) and Centro de Estudios y Experimentación de Obras Públicas (CEDEX) provide an experimental field into the area of the reservoir called El Saltadero, where an artificial slope with a support of porous concrete has been built in order to place a series of synthetic geomembranes. Materials placed there are novelty or come from new manufacturers in our country. The performance of their products is unknowing under our climate. Although the performance of a great quantity of materials is being checked, this paper refers to eight of them, which are among the less used in this field of technology. The synthetic geomembranes considered are plasticized poly (vinyl chloride) with insertion of glass fiber (PVC-P), ethylene propylene diene monomer rubber with polyester veil (EPDM), medium density polyethylene (MDPE), chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CSM), ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA/C), flexible polypropylene (fPP) and both elastomeric (POE) and thermoplastic (TPO) polyolefins. Characteristics of polymeric geosynthetic barriers were determined prior to installation in order to check their validity and also to set the initial value to be referred to over time. Samples are taken periodically to perform tests which results make it possible to know the performance of the materials considered. Tests carried out during fifteen years from the installation of geomembranes refer to foldability at low temperatures, Shore hardness, dynamic and static impact resistance, tensile strength, elongation at break, optical and scanning electron microscopy and, in the case of PVC-P, plasticizers loss.
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