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Geotextiles Summary:➤ Synthetic materials utilized in civil engineering to enhance soil properties. ➤ Applications: roads, railways, landfills, drainage structures. ➤ Advantages: lightweight, easy to install, high tensile strength. ➤ Disadvantages: expensive, requires specialist contractors. |
1. What is Geotextile?
➤ Geotextile is an artificial and absorbent material used in civil construction to enhance soil characteristics.
➤ It enables driving poor soils additionally suited for construction by executing different operations such as breaking, purifying, strengthening, protecting, and depleting the soil.
➤ Geotextiles are broadly operated in infrastructure undertakings such as roads, landfills, ports, drainage structures, and other civil engineering missions.
2. What are the types of Geotextiles?
➤ Geotextiles are manufactured or synthetic materials with three manufacturing categories: polypropylene, polyester, and others.
The types of Geotextile are:
I. Woven Fabric Geotextile
➤ The woven fabric type is available mainly in geotextiles and is fabricated using techniques identical to weaving regular clothing textiles.
➤ The woven fabric type has the characteristic impression of two sets of parallel threads or yarns. The yarn racing along the length is called the warp, and the one perpendicular is known as the weft.
II. Nonwoven Geotextiles
➤ Nonwoven geotextiles of successive thread yarns or short–staple fibers are created. They relate to thermal, chemical, mechanical approaches or a combination of techniques.
➤ Geo-fibers obtained from mechanical interlocking or chemical or thermal bonding have a 0.5-1 mm thickness, while chemically bonded nonwovens are comparatively this,k, usually in the order of 3 mm.
III. Knitted Geotextiles
➤ Knitted geotextiles are prepared by interlocking a series of loops of yarn jointly. All the knitted geosynthetics are formed by employing the knitting technique in conjunction with some other form of geosynthetics manufacture, such as weaving.
➤ Apart from these three geotextiles, geosynthetics employed are geonets, geogrids, geo-cells, geomembranes, geocomposites, etc., each maintaining their particular features and operating for specific use.
3. What are the uses of Geotextile in Construction?
➤ The coverage of geotextiles in the engineering field is massive. The usage of geo-fabric is given like the Work heading.
I. Road Work
➤ Geotextiles are usually employed in road construction. It supports the soil by adding tensile strength.
➤ It is used at a rapid water level in roadbeds, and geotextile fabrics must maintain their Permeability without failing in their roles.
II. Railway Works
➤ Woven or non–woven fabrics are employed to split the soil from the subsoil where the ground is uneven without impeding the rotation of the groundwater.
➤ Protecting the separate layers with fabric prevents the material from straying from the edge due to shocks and vibrations from driving trains.
III. Agriculture
➤ It is employed for sludge management. To improve muddy paths and trails used by cattle or light traffic, non–woven fabrics are used and folded by overlaying to have a mass of pipe or grit.
4. What are the Functions of Geotextile?
I. Separation
➤ The separation porous geotextile layers are positioned between the two separate or distinct materials so that the functioning of two diverse materials can stay intact or be enhanced.
➤ Separation is employed in transportation to control the intermixing of two adjacent soil layers.
➤ The geotextile layer is employed as a separator for the fine sub-grade soil from the fine aggregate of the base course. Also, the geotextiles have maintained the strength of the aggregate and drainage.
➤ Geotextile separators are employed for all types of roads, various types of foundations, and base levels of structure.
➤ Also, Geofabrics control the premature failure of the structure, and separators maintain the pumping effect produced by dynamic load and deliver passage for water while retaining the soil particles.
Some areas were employed for separation uses,
➤ Operated between paved and unpaved roads.
➤ Used for an airfield.
➤ Engaged between subgrade and stone base.
➤ Utilized between landfills and stone courses.
➤ Operated between sand drainage layers and geomembranes.
➤ Operated Underneath Sidewalk slabs.
➤ Utilized underneath Curb Areas.
➤ Engaged underneath parking lots.
➤ Used underneath sports and athletic fields
II. Filtration
➤ Filtration is the equilibrium textile layer to the soil that permits good water flow with the lowest loss of ground across the plane of Geotextile.
➤ The filtration material can be either nonwoven or woven, allowing water passage while maintaining soil particles.
➤ Infiltration action, Permeability, and Porosity are the significant geotextile possessions, and geotextile warping application is employed for vertical and horizontal drains. Also, this warping application is used as a substitute for graded aggregate.
III. Reinforcement
➤ This is the synergistic progress in the total system strength produced using a geotextile in the soil and made primarily through the following three means: Lateral control via interfacial variance between Geotextile and ground or aggregate.
➤ Membrane types of support of the wheel load. Potential bearing surface failure plane pushing to the result at the alternate higher shear strength surface.
➤ In the above process, the structural stability of the soil is significantly improved by the tensile strength of the geosynthetic material.
➤ This idea is identical to plain concrete with steel. Since concrete is vulnerable to tension, reinforcing steel is employed for strengthening objectives. Geosynthetic material works similarly to reinforcing steel by delivering strength that maintains that maintained lace.
➤ Geogrid or geotextiles deliver Reinforcement for permitting dams and roads to be constructed over fragile soils and permitting steeper dams to be built. This configuration is identical to that of reinforced concrete with steel.
➤ Since concrete is vulnerable to pressure, toughening steel strengthens it. Geosynthetic materials work similarly to reinforcing steel by delivering strength that helps maintain the soil in place.
➤ The Reinforcement delivers geotextiles and geogrids that permit the embankment and roads to be built over weak soils and allow for the construction of the steeper embankment.
IV. Sealing Function
➤ The nonwoven type geotextile serves this role when impregnated with asphalt or polymeric mix rendering; it is relatively impervious to both planes, such as in-plane and cross-plane flow.
➤ The nonwoven geotextile membranes are positioned on the existent texture of the pavement.
➤ The Geotextile immerses the asphalt to evolve a waterproofing membrane. That is undervaluing the vertical flow of water into the pavement structure.
5. What are the characteristics of Geotextile?
i. Physical Properties of Geotextiles
➤ Specific Gravity
➤ Weight
➤ Thickness
➤ Density
ii. Mechanical Properties of Geotextiles
➤ Tensile Strength
➤ Bursting Strength
➤ Tenacity
➤ Drapability
➤ Compatibility
➤ Flexibility
➤ Tearing Strength
➤ Frictional Resistance
➤ Porosity
iii. Hydraulic properties of Geotextiles
➤ Porosity
➤ Permittivity
➤ Permeability
➤ Transitivity
➤ Turbidity or Soil retention
➤ Filtration Length
iv. Degradation Properties of Geotextiles
➤ Biodegradation
➤ Hydrolytic degradation
➤ Photodegradation
➤ Chemical Degradation
➤ Mechanical Degradation
➤ Another Degradation occurs due to attacks of termites, rodents, etc.
v. Endurance Properties of Geotextiles
➤ Elongation
➤ Abrasion Resistance
➤ Clogging Length and Flow
6. What are the Advantages of Geotextiles?
➤ They are lightweight, making them easy to handle and place.
➤ The transportation and labor cost is less in real terms.
➤ Knitted fabrics have high incision strength.
7. What are the Disadvantages of Geotextiles?
➤ Installation of geotextiles is critical and requires specialist contractors.
➤ These can delay seed germination due to low soil temperature.
➤ It has maximum flow rates.
➤ The base is not suitable for traffic areas.
| Read Also: Earthen Dam |
