Geoelectric Noise Elimination in Electrical Landfill Leakage Detection

Electrical leak location methods are effective and widely used in landfill leakage detection. They make use of the high resistivity of the geomembrane liner. When a leak occurs in the liner, it provides a path for the current causing a potential anomaly in the vicinal medium. Then, the leak can be located by measuring the potential distribution patterns. The earth noise, natural electric field, electrode polarization noise and humanities field all have affection on the potential distribution. According to the different characteristics of these noises, some methods were put forward to eliminate them. The experimental results show that using low-frequency alternating square-wave signal can effectively eliminate the natural electric field and electrode polarization noises. The detection results can be improved significantly.