Effect of temperature on critical strength of geosynthetic clay liner / textured geomembrane composite systems

Abstract

The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of temperature on the shear behavior and critical strength of composite systems comprising of a geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) and textured geomembrane (GMX). For this purpose, displacement-controlled internal and interface direct shear tests were performed at both room temperature (≈20 °C) and an elevated temperature of 80 °C on three GCL/GMX composite systems at normal stresses varying from 100 kPa to 2000 kPa. An increase in the test temperature resulted in peak shear strength reduction up to 45% in GCL internal shear tests and up to 46% in GCL-GMX interface shear tests. The large-displacement shear strength at the elevated temperature was also reduced by up to 32% in GCL internal shear tests and up to 48% in GCL-GMX interface shear tests.