Long term behavior and life expectancy of EPDM geomembranes installed in water reservoirs
Comportement à long terme en espérance de vie de géomembranes en EPDM installées dans des réservoirs d'eau
Résumé
This paper presents the long term behavior of EPDM geomembranes installed in 5 water reservoirs and an experimental field in Spain. The initial properties of the EPDM geomembranes and their evolution over time have been measured regularly. This periodic testing was done on following properties: foldability at low temperature, hardness Shore-A, tensile properties, dynamic impact, puncture resistance, optical reflection microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. As well, tests were carried out to check the influence of orientation, thickness and exposure to UV. This document ends by giving some comments on the acceptable change of critical performance properties for an approximation of service life of EPDM geomembranes.