This guide covers guidelines for the acceptance testing requirements for geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) materials, describing types of tests, test methods, and recommended verifications and is intended to aid purchasers, installers, contractors, owners, operators, designers and agencies in establishing a minimum level of effort for product acceptance testing and verification. This guide suggests the types of tests, the methods of the testing, and verification requirements for acceptance testing of GCL materials. It should be recognized that parties, organizations or representatives may perform additional tests and/or at other frequencies than required in this standard guide. In this case, the project-specific acceptance plan will then take precedence over this standard guide. Different properties such as clay mass per unit area, swell index, fluid loss, grab tensile strength, tensile strength, density and thickness of geomembrane support, and bonding peel strength shall be determined by subjecting the material to different test methods.

1.1 This guide covers guidelines for the acceptance testing requirements for geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) materials, describing types of tests, test methods, and recommended verifications.

1.2 This guide is intended to aid purchasers, installers, contractors, owners, operators, designers and agencies in establishing a minimum level of effort for product acceptance testing and verification. This is intended to assure that the supplied GCL rolls meet accepted material specifications.

1.3 The values stated in either SI units or inch-pound units are to be regarded separately as standard. The values stated in each system may not be exact equivalents; therefore, each system shall be used independently of the other. Combining values from the two systems may result in non-conformance with the standard.

1.4 This guide offers an organized collection of information or a series of options and does not recommend a specific course of action. This guide cannot replace education or experience and should be used in conjunction with professional judgment. Not all aspects of this guide may be applicable in all circumstances. This guide is not intended to represent or replace the standard of care by which the adequacy of a given professional service must be judged, nor should this guide be applied without consideration of a project's many unique aspects. The word “Standard” in the title of this guide means only that the guide has been approved through the ASTM consensus process.

1.5 This standard does not purport to address all of the safety concerns, if any, associated with its use. It is the responsibility of the user of this standard to establish appropriate safety and health practices and determine the applicability of regulatory limitations prior to use.