Moisture uptake of a nonwoven geotextile carrier-GCL from Lateritic subsoils under simulated tropical thermal conditions

Environmental conditions have become a concern when involving the use of Geosynthetics clay liners (GCLs) as leachate barriers, particularly because they can be subjected to daily thermal cycles during construction and operation of landfills, which can affect their properties. This paper investigates the hydration behavior of a nonwoven geotextile carrier-GCL in contact with lateritic subsoils under isothermal and simulated thermal conditions as commonly found in tropical regions. A thermal insulate testing box was used to shelter an instrumented liner landfill allowing the investigation of thermal and hydraulic responses during hydration. Lateritic subsoils were observed not to provide high levels of GCLs hydration under isothermal conditions, whereas thermal daily cycles led to capillary break that restricted the moisture uptake at the interface between subsoil and the nonwoven geotextile carrier. Higher values of subsoil initial moisture contents were found to be significant to reduce capillary effects and to allow some GCL hydration. The poor hydration demonstrated to be critical in terms of GCL hydraulic behavior.