Application of electrical resistivity tomography (ERT) for vertical high-density polyethylene (HDPE) membrane detection

Abstract

At landfill sites, uncontrolled leachate is a serious cause of groundwater and soil contamination at landfills and can occur extensively when there are looploopholesin the vertical HDPE (High-density polyethylene) membrane. For this reason, detecting HDPE membranes is necessary. The conventional electrode running poles approach is limited, it reflects the distribution of resistivity in 2D subsurface profiles, which is difficult to deploy electrodes above vertical HDPE membrane. According to the structural characteristics and field conditions of vertical HDPE membranes, the two-row current and potential (CP) electrode array is proposed to be applied to the testing of vertical HDPE membranes. The forward geoelectric model of the vulnerability was built using pyGimli, and data on 1519 apparent resistivity were acquired. The previous knowledge without the vulnerability was taken into consideration as the constraint condition, and the regional control was added to conduct the inversion, all using the least square approach. The model was used to analyze data on the detection of vertical HDPE membranes in a landfill In Yancheng, and potential flaws were discovered. Results show that the CP electrical measuring device can be efficient, quick, and accurate in the positioning of vertical HDPE membrane hole detection, and it is a cost-effective method. To verify the results, in the vertical HDPE membrane, through the Wenner device, the inversion of the 2D profile, and low resistivity anomalies are detected. This is thought to be through the leachate of leakage of HDPE membrane resistance rate is about 1.8 ohm. The findings demonstrate that the vertical HDPE membrane susceptibility may be located and detected using a CP electrical measuring instrument, which is a practical and efficient approach.