Behaviour of geomembranes in French embankment dams

Abstract

France has been one of the most active countries in the development of geomembrane based facings (GBF) for embankment dams. Therefore it is interesting to draw lessons from the feedback on this portfolio of dams, whose oldest are now more than thirty years old. This paper does that on three topics: ageing study of geomembranes through in situ samples and laboratory tests, global efficiency of the GBF through evolution of leakage measurements, qualitative aspects through visual inspection. It can be concluded that, if well designed and placed, these GBF have a very satisfactory behaviour.