Low-temperature air channel testing of thermally bonded PVC geomembrane seams

The objective of this paper is to develop a procedure for air channel testing of dual-track thermal seams at low sheet temperatures and recommendations for reducing destructive testing of field PVC geomembrane seams. This objective is accomplished by developing relationships between seam peel strength and seam burst pressure for sheet temperatures ranging from 0.6°C to 25.6°C during field air channel testing. This paper refines the original correlation presented by Thomas et al. using data for low sheet temperatures, and develops a polynomial equation that can be used to convert the sheet temperature during field air channel testing to the air channel pressure required to satisfy the specified seam peel strength instead of graphically finding the air channel pressure from an Arrhenius analysis. Thus the proposed relationship and equation allow the seam peel strength to be determined from the field air channel testing without conducting destructive tests.