Puncture Protection of Geomembranes Part III: Examples

Abstract

Geomembrane protection materials should be considered in design if geomembranes are to properly serve the role of barrier materials. The type, thickness and properties of the required protection material are in significant need of a rational design method. This series of three papers provides a design method for the inclusion of geomembrane protection materials, geotextiles in particular. Part I focuses on theory, Part II focuses on experiments, and this paper, Part III, focuses on design examples and presents a comparison of results presented in Parts I and II. The design developed in Part II is used in this paper to provide several numerical examples that highlight the different strategies used in Germany and in the USA for the selection of protection geotextiles. This paper also includes a number of design charts for a wide variety of practical situations. Finally, puncture resistance results for a geomembrane with different types of protection materials (other than virgin polymer nonwoven needle punched geotextiles) are presented in the Appendix. The design procedures presented result in a site specific and material specific factor of safety.