Large-strain tensile behaviour of geomembranes with defects using 3D digital image correlation

Abstract

A series of uniaxial tensile tests was conducted to investigate the large-strain tensile behaviour of high-density polyethylene (HDPE) geomembranes with defects. The experimental optical technique of 3D digital image correlation (DIC) was used to measure the full-field displacements and strains of the geomembranes during the tensile process. The differences between the average axial elongations and the local strains of intact geomembranes were discussed based on the strain measurement results for different tensile phases. For geomembranes with defects, large local strains near the defects sharply increased with increasing average axial elongations and the influence ranges of different types of defects in the geomembranes exhibited small differences after large tensile deformations. Compared with an intact geomembrane, defects significantly changed the local tensile behaviour of a geomembrane.