Detection of Construction Flaws in Geomembrane Liners by Image Processing

The effectiveness of a waste containment system depends primarily on the integrity of the geomembrane liner within the system. However, construction flaws always reduce its effectiveness as physical barriers to contaminant transport. This paper presents a reliable, efficient and cost effective technique to detect these defects in the geomembrane liner by image processing immediately after construction so that any necessary repair can be performed prior to operation
of the facility. The video ipage of the constructed geomembrane liner is recorded by a camcorder. The image is then digitized into pixels and a degree of brightness is assigned to each pixel. The contrast in the degree of brightness allows the identification of a punctured hole down to 1/32″ (0.8 mm) in diameter. The paper will present the results of a laboratory investigation on a GUNDLE HOPE geomembrane using different identification algorithms for punctured holes of different diameters.