Air-channel testing of thermally bonded flexible polypropylene geomembrane seams

For more than a decade, thermal welding has proven to be an efficient and costeffective procedure for field-seaming geomembranes. Thermal welding of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) geomembranes has allowed use of air-channel tests in lieu of destructive peel tests to verify field seams meet specified seam peel strength (Thomas and Stark, 2003).