Elastomeric and Bituminous Geomembranes

This article on elastomeric polymeric geomembranes and bituminous geomembranes is intended to familiarize the reader with these relatively new materials. Geomembranes are flexible, watertight materials used in civil engineering structures such as reservoirs, dams, canals, waste storage facilities, mine tailings repositories and many other types of structure. Elastomeric polymeric geomembranes and bituminous geomembranes, although less widely used than thermoplastic geomembranes, have very interesting properties which mean that these geomembranes are often selected. It is therefore important to be familiar with them, so as to be able to enter into dialogue with geomembrane suppliers, testing laboratories and experts.

The geomembranes presented in this article are: EPDM geomembrane, which is purely elastomeric; CSPE geomembrane, which is thermoplastic when first produced, but gradually becomes elastomeric as it spontaneously vulcanizes; and bituminous geomembranes.

Each geomembrane is described in terms of its composition, production and assembly methods, followed by information on its main properties, durability and use. This information is presented simply, so that the reader can benefit from it without requiring advanced knowledge of material behavior. There is intentional repetition between texts relating to different geomembranes, to enable the reader to read only the section relating to the geomembrane of interest. The organization of the text, identical for each type of geomembrane, facilitates comparisons between different geomembranes.

The properties of geomembranes are generally presented in qualitative terms. This enables the reader to better understand the behavior of geomembranes than by consulting endless tables of numerical values, which are only useful when it comes to dimensioning structures.

The mass of information presented in this article is such that errors and omissions are inevitable. Corrections and additions submitted to the author will be used in future updates.

At the end of the article, readers will find a list of technical terms encountered here, both in the form of a glossary and a table of acronyms.