Using stress wave technology for leakage detection in a landfill impervious layer

Area of Science:

• Geotechnical Engineering
• Environmental Monitoring
• Signal Processing

Background:

• Existing electrical monitoring methods for landfill liners suffer from late detection, leading to environmental pollution before discovery.
• There is a need for a proactive and precise method to identify and locate leaks in impervious landfill layers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and validate a novel stress wave monitoring method for early detection and precise localization of leaks in landfill impervious layers.
• To address the
• first pollution, then discovery
• issue inherent in current monitoring techniques.

Main Methods:

• Utilizing geophones to detect stress wave signals generated by high-density polyethylene (HDPE) film rupture.
• Developing and applying a picking model to calculate stress wave first arrival times with high accuracy.
• Implementing a positioning model to determine the precise location of leaks based on signal analysis.

Main Results:

• Stress wave signals from HDPE film rupture are identifiable, with a duration of approximately 100 ms and bandwidth within 0-1 kHz.
• The picking model achieved an average error of 0.35 ms.
• The positioning model demonstrated an average error of 0.248 m, with maximum fiducial errors of 0.32% (X-axis) and 0.58% (Y-axis).

Conclusions:

• Stress wave monitoring offers a viable solution for early and accurate leak detection in landfill liners.
• The proposed method significantly improves upon the limitations of traditional electrical monitoring systems.
• Optimized parameters for geophone distance ( < 31.5 m) and model iteration thresholds ensure reliable performance.