A solution for calculating the leakage rate through GMB/CCL composite liners with long defects

Geomembranes (GMBs) of the landfill composite liners frequently contain long defects, which will form the dominant flow path in the composite liner. The significant differences between the geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) and the compacted clay liner (CCL) lead to distinct flow patterns in the defective composite liners. For GMB/CCL composite liners, the induced flow in the CCL is two-dimensional, thus the existing solution with the assumption of one-dimensional flow significantly underestimates the leakage rate with a maximum relative error of 87% when compared to the results of a 2D finite element model. A new solution for predicting the leakage rate through GMB/CCL composite liners with a long defect is proposed with a consideration of two-dimensional flow in the CCL, with relative errors of leakage rate less than 29% for the cases investigated. The proposed solution also shows a lower relative error for the wetted distance (6–23%) compared to the existing solution (49–77%) for GMB/CCL composite liner cases. The comparisons with numerical results show that the proposed analytical solution significantly reduces the underestimation of leakage rate through the defective GMB/CCL composite liner, thus can help to improve the composite liner design for landfills.