Geofabrics Journal September 2014

Geofabrics will be proudly involved in the presentation of a number of technical papers at the 7th International Congress of Environmental Geotechnics Conference in Melbourne in November 2014. Following is a short overview of these papers.

Paper title: Research and Analysis of Geosynthetics For a Tailings Storage Application Authors – Marc Amtsberg, John Buckley and Chris Lane

This paper describes the benefits of using performance based geosynthetic testing for a copper and gold tailings storage operation in South Australia.  This particular location requires strict environmental controls in a sensitive environment.  Consultation between the designer and Geofabrics occurred early during the approvals process to provide geosynthetic design guidance on the tailings storage facility site and design.  The regulatory requirements had two aims –

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Paper title: Installation Durability of Revetment Geotextiles Authors – Preston Kendall, Charmaine Y T Cheah and Richard Austin The use of geotextiles in revetment applications is a growing application for geosynthetics and one which will increase further with rises in sea levels and global warming effects. To enable revetment applications to perform in-service, the durability of geotextiles in revetments must be clearly understood in order for design guidelines to be generated.

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Paper title: Durability of Polyester Geotextiles Subjected To Outdoor and Accelerated Weathering Authors – Daniel Gibbs and Richard Austin Construction projects require geotextiles to be exposed to ultra-violet radiation, possibly for many months or years. Australia has the highest UV exposure in the world, requiring engineers to understand how the geotextile they specify or install performs in prolonged UV exposure. This is even more important when the geotextile concerned is manufactured elsewhere in the world, where the local UV resistance requirements are much lower. ….Continue

Paper title: Geomembrane Protection Using Cushioning Geotextiles Authors – Richard Austin, Daniel Gibbs and Preston Kendall Geotextiles are widely used to protect geomembranes from installation and in-service damage within applications where eliminating puncturing and the control of membrane strain is critical for the long-term performance of the lining system.  In lining applications, for long-term performance of the liner to be assured, the designer has to protect the membrane from excessive point loading from the overlying drainage stone (thus minimising potential environmental stress cracking). ….Continue

Paper title: A Test Method To Determine Expected GCL Porosity Under Specific Site Conditions Authors – Daniel Gibbs and Will Gates Determination of the porosity and void ratio of bentonites under site conditions is critical to understanding GCL performance in-service.  The value of porosity determined for a porous material depends on the subtly different interactions within the pore spaces governed by a particular leachate flux process.                                                                                                       ….Continue

Paper title: Geosynthetic Clay Liner Overlap Performance and Testing Authors – Preston Kendall, John Buckley and Richard Austin Whilst the hydraulic performance of Geosynthetic Clay Liners (GCLs) is rigorously tested, the performance of the overlap is equally important, frequently untested and poses additional testing challenges. ….Continue

The Geosynthetic Centre of Excellence (GCE), is a dedicated R&D laboratory which opened on the Gold Coast in South-East Queensland in 2009, and aims to support the Australian engineering community by linking their projects to specialist geosynthetic testing facilities. The GCE works in an open and collaborative way with designers, contractors and asset-owners to enhance decision making through a more informed understanding of the performance of geosynthetics in their project design. ….Continue