One of the topics of most concern in the rehabilitation of concrete and masonry dams using exposed geomembranes is the evaluation of their residual life. In all these applications, the geomembranes were left exposed on the upstream face, without external protection, to environmental factors and weather conditions, especially to UV rays. The prediction of the moment in which it could become necessary to replace the geomembrane assumes a very important role form a managerial point of view. In this paper, in order to verify the performance of the waterproofing system over time, several geomembrane samples have been taken from a considerable number of dams. These samples have then been subjected to physical and mechanical tests, in order to observe the evolution of the properties of the geosynthetics over the years. In a lot of cases, particularly when the results of tests on virgin samples were available, it was pos-sible to evaluate the residual life of exposed geomembranes on the different types of dams.
Menu