Abstract
Many electrical leak detection methods have been researched and developed, in many laboratories, for landfill site lined with geomembrane such as synthetic rubber and plastics. The methods assume that the geomembrane has a high electrical resistance and the points of leakage are searched out and detected by mesuring differences in electrical potential, current or electrical resistivity. The authors of this paper have investigated the electrical properties of various membranes, and have found that some geomembranes are not electrical insulators and therefore the traditional theory that they should be insulators no longer holds good. This paper presents the electrical structure within a landfill site, the electrical properties of various geomembranes and the influence of geomembranes with a low electrical resistivity on electrical leak detection.
