Tendoned geocell systems protect geomembranes for tailings, landfill covers, and basin containment

摘要

Geocellular confinement offers hard-armored or permeable protection to geomembrane liners that are critical components in solution ponds, stormwater containment, and tailings storage facilities. Geocells can vary in cell aperture and cell depth to best meet system design parameters, and can accept a variety of infill options and finished surfaces, including vegetation, aggregates including mine waste rock, or concrete. The connection point strength (connection of section-to-section as well as load transfer device from tendon to geocell wall) is of particular importance, as complex webs of internal shearing stresses from gravitational and hydraulic forces become critical to design. For mining solutions, all components and details of the system should be engineered to comply with the details of the project. They need to withstand these extreme stresses, brutal soil conditions, and be chemical- and corrosion-resistant.Load transfer clips are recent innovations engineered to transfer the slope gravitational forces from the geocell wall to the tendon, and then onto the crest anchorage. Tendons and load transfer clips allow for additional stability against gravitational, hydrodynamic, and buoyancy forces, and create a suspended structural support for cost-effective geomembrane protection, even over steep slopes. High-strength tendons and load transfer clips are essential parts of the complete cover solution - creating and suspending a protective cover over the geomembrane that prevents accidental puncture and environmental degradation without having to perforate the geomembrane. Specific examples of geomembrane protection using geocell and tendon anchorage from international mine sites and civil projects will be discussed in detail, reinforcing their utility as an industry best practice.