Evaluating wettability of geotextiles with contact angles

Geotextiles have been used for drainage purposes in pavements for many years. To drain water out of road sections, the geotextiles need to get wet first. In this study, the wettability of three different types of geotextiles, namely wicking woven (WW) geotextile, non-wicking woven (NWW) geotextile, and nonwoven (NW) geotextile, was investigated in terms of their contact angles dependent on water-geotextile interaction. Contact angle was observed by the VCA Optima XE tensiometer for up to 12 s after a water droplet was dropped at the center of a geotextile's surface. Water droplets of two different sizes (2 μL and 5 μL) were used to demonstrate the droplet size effect on the contact angles of water on undisturbed geotextiles. Test results show that the contact angle decreased to smaller than 90° and the droplet disappeared on the wicking woven geotextile within a few seconds after water dropping, while the contact angle remained larger than or approximately equal to 90° on the other two types of geotextiles within the observation period. This comparison indicates that water penetrated faster into the wicking woven geotextile than other geotextiles. Furthermore, this study investigated the effects of soil particle intrusion and geotextile or fiber deep groove flattening associated with compaction on the wettability of geotextiles.     

Experimental evaluation of wicking geotextile-stabilized aggregate bases over subgrade under rainfall simulation and cyclic loading

Wicking geotextile has been increasingly utilized in field projects to mitigate water-related roadway problems. The previous studies showed that the wicking geotextile could provide mechanical stabilization, serve as capillary barrier, and enhance lateral drainage. The wicking geotextile differentiates itself from non-wicking geotextiles by providing capillary or wicking drainage in unsaturated conditions, whereas non-wicking geotextiles only provide gravitational drainage under saturated or near-saturated conditions. Although the previous studies have demonstrated the benefits of soil water content reduction by the wicking drainage, it is not well understood how the wicking geotextile stabilization improves overall performance of aggregate bases over subgrade under traffic or cyclic loading. This paper presents an experimental study where large-scale cyclic plate loading tests were conducted under different conditions: (1) non-stabilized base, (2) non-wicking geotextile-stabilized base, and (3) wicking geotextile-stabilized base, over soft and moderate subgrades. Rainfall simulation was carried out for each test section. After each rainfall simulation, a drainage period was designed to allow water to drain from the section. The amounts of water applied and exiting from the test section were recorded and are compared. Cyclic loading was applied after each drainage period. The test results show that the combined hydraulic and mechanical stabilization effect by the wicking geotextile reduced the permanent deformation of the aggregate base over the subgrade as compared with the non-stabilized and non-wicking geotextile-stabilized sections.     

Evaluation of moisture reduction in aggregate base by wicking geotextile using soil column tests

This study investigated the distance effect on water reduction by the wicking geotextile in a base course experimentally using three sets of soil column tests. In each set of tests, two soil columns were constructed by compacting well-graded aggregate over a non-wicking woven geotextile and a wicking geotextile. A portion of the geotextile specimen was extended outside of the soil column for evaporation. The changes of the water contents in the soil column were monitored by volumetric water content sensors installed at various depths. The experimental results indicate the capillary drainage by the wicking geotextile effectively reduced water content within the soil column up to a distance from the wicking geotextile (i.e., approximately 200 mm for this specific aggregate with 10% fines). The test results also show that the wicking geotextile could reduce more water content of the aggregate below its optimum water content at a faster rate than the non-wicking geotextile.     

Working mechanism of a new wicking geotextile in roadway applications: A numerical study

Woven geotextiles are often to be used in roadways for reinforcement purposes due to their higher tensile strengths. In the design of a woven geotextile for practical applications, the focus is mainly put on its reinforcing effect, while its hydraulic behaviors are not major design parameters and the influence of hydraulic properties on the reinforcing effect is often ignored. However, woven geotextiles are predominantly made of polypropylene and polyester, which are hydrophobic. This characteristic can result in a capillary break effect which it is equivalent to raise the ground water table to the location where the geotextile is installed. Numerous researchers have reported that the moisture storage from a capillary break effect can be detrimental to the long-term performance of a pavement structure. Until now, no method is available to effectively resolve this issue.Recently a new type of wicking geotextile is produced which has the capability to laterally drain excess water in a roadway under both saturated and unsaturated conditions. Several field applications demonstrated its potential in improving pavement performance. This paper attempted to investigate the working mechanism of the wicking geotextile through numerical studies and quantify the benefits of the wicking geotextile in term of drainage performance in a pavement structure. A numerical model was developed and validated using column test results from existing literature. After that the drainage performance of the wicking geotextile under different working conditions was simulated and evaluated.     

Improvements in small-scale standardized testing of geotextiles used in silt fence applications

Silt fence have been used as a means for intercepting and treating construction site stormwater runoff prior to offsite discharge for well over 30 years. Standard small-scale testing methodologies for evaluating the filtering component of silt fence installations have failed to mimic realistic flows and sediment loadings commonly seen in field applications. To address these issues, this study evaluated the performance capabilities of two nonwoven and three woven silt fence geotextiles using an innovative testing methodology and a newly developed small-scale testing apparatus. The overall intent for conducting the evaluations was to develop a deeper understanding of effluent flow rates, sediment retention capabilities, and water quality impacts associated with geotextile fabrics. Results suggest that effluent flow rates of nonwoven geotextiles are on average 43% lower than woven materials, which results in extensive upstream retention times of impounded stormwater for nonwoven materials. Sediment retention results indicate that nonwoven geotextiles have an average sediment retention rate of 97% while woven geotextiles average 91%. Finally, water quality analyses suggest that the primary means for turbidity reductions rely on the process of sedimentation during the 30-min test period (i.e., 46% reduction) and filtration during the 90-min dewatering period (i.e., 19% reduction).     

Investigation of tensile strength on alkaline treated and untreated kenaf geotextile under dry and wet conditions

Geosynthetics or geotextile is used for aggregate separation, soil reinforcement, filtration, drainage and moisture or liquid barriers in geotechnical applications. Because of the environmental issues, a bio-based material is introduced as a sustainable construction material. The kenaf fibre is a bio-based material available in the tropical countries. It can be potentially used as a geotextile because of its high tensile strength. This paper presents the tensile strength characteristics of kenaf geotextile, manufactured with and without sodium hydroxide (NaOH) treatment. The tensile strength of kenaf geotextile was determined by using the wide-width strip test based on the ASTM D4595-17 standard. Because the kenaf fibre has a high water absorption capability, the effect of wet and dry conditions on tensile behaviour of kenaf textile was studied. Two patterns of woven kenaf with two different opening sizes between their yarns (0 × 0 and 2 × 2 mm)—plain and incline patterns were studied. In addition, the tensile strength of the kenaf geotextiles, buried in natural ground, was examined after a one-year period. The tensile strength of kenaf geotextiles was higher for the smaller spaces between the yarns. Furthermore, the tensile strength and elongation were lower under wet condition. The alkaline treatment (6% concentration of NaOH) significantly improved the tensile strength of the woven kenaf geotextile. The tensile strength of the treated kenaf geotextile was higher than that of the untreated one, for both short and long-term conditions, showing the advantage of NaOH treatment.     

The application and manufacture of woven geotextiles

Some criteria for geotextile selection are considered and the specifications of various geotextiles are related to various case histories cited. Consideration is given to the special filtration capacity of fabrics and the possibility of adapting manufacture to optimise the geotextile to specific circumstances. The possibilities of reinforcement offered by fabrics are also illustrated by examples and it is shown that in extreme cases the application of geotextiles allows safe technical solutions coupled with economy. The manufacture of woven geotextiles is characterised by the various procedures in weaving preparation where technical and economic requirements have to be met. The influence of various factors on economy is explained and their effects shown.     

Laboratory tests to evaluate effectiveness of wicking geotextile in soil moisture reduction

A new type of woven geotextile, referred to as wicking geotextile, was developed and introduced to the market. Since this wicking geotextile consists of wicking fibers, they can wick water out from unsaturated soils in a pavement structure thus resulting in an increase of soil resilient modulus and enhance performance of roadways. In this study, a physical model test was developed to evaluate the effectiveness of the wicking geotextile in soil moisture reduction for roadway applications. A test box with a dimension of 1041 mm in length, 686 mm in width, and 584 mm in height was used in this study. Two HDPE plastic panels were used to separate the box into two sections, one containing a dehumidifier and the other backfilled with soil. The dehumidifier was adopted to collect the water, which was wicked out from the soil by the wicking geotextile and evaporated into air. Test results show that (1) the wicking geotextile wicked water out from the soil even at the moisture content close to the optimum moisture content and (2) the comparison of soil moisture contents before and after rainfall demonstrated that the wicking geotextile maintained the soil moisture contents after rainfall close to those before rainfall and had an effective distance for the soil moisture reduction.     

A laboratory investigation on the impact resistance of a woven geotextile

This paper focuses on the impact resistance of geotextiles when subjected to impact loadings induced by dropping of stones. Such scenarios occur when geotextiles are used as a protective measure for fine granular material where is prone to be washed away. Usually, these geotextiles are restrained by placement of stones on top of them. A laboratory testing program is performed to expose a woven geotextile under dropping of a concrete block with various dropping energies and geometries. The induced damage on the geotextiles is inspected after the drop. Results indicate that as the drop energy increases, not only the possibility of puncturing of geotextiles increases but, in case of puncturing, the punctured area of geotextile expands as well. In addition, it is found that the geometry of the concrete block, where it collides on the geotextile, plays an important role on the survivability of geotextiles. In addition, PIV analysis has been performed to better understand the deformation pattern of the geotextile under impact loading. Based on the PIV results a simple scheme is suggested to estimate the drop energy threshold that the geotextile can survive under certain block geometry.     

The influence of uniaxial tensile strain on the pore size and filtration characteristics of geotextiles

The influence of uniaxial tensile strain on the pore size distribution and filtration characteristics of geotextiles is studied. An experimental apparatus was designed and used to conduct tests for pore size distribution, flow rate through the geotextiles and the gradient ratio. Four geotextiles made of polypropylene (two heat-bonded nonwoven and two slit film woven) were studied. Throughout the test series, the geotextiles were stretched to maintain 5%, 10% and 20% in-plane uniaxial strains. The strained specimen test results were compared with those from unstrained specimen. The experimental results illustrate the pore size and the mean flow rate through the plain geotextiles increase with the increase in tensile strain. The differences in changed percentages for apparent opening size and flow rate between the two nonwoven geotextiles are much higher than those between the two woven geotextiles. The increase in tensile strain results in reduction in the gradient ratio for the soil–geotextile system. This effect is more pronounced for nonwoven geotextiles. More testing is recommended to gain a deeper understanding into tensile strain effect on various geotextiles.     

单向拉伸对土工织物反滤性能影响的试验研究

为研究单向拉伸对土工织物反滤性能的影响，选取两种条膜机织有纺织物和两种短纤针刺无纺织物，将不同拉应变下的织物与非连续级配土组成反滤系统，利用梯度比渗透仪测试系统反滤参数随拉应变的变化。根据反滤设计的透水、保土和防淤堵3个准则，分析拉应变对透水率、漏土量、梯度比等各参数的影响。试验结果表明：随着拉应变增加，有纺织物透水及防淤堵性能增强，保土性能减弱；无纺织物则相反，透水及防淤堵性能减弱，保土性能增强；同种土工织物厚度越大，拉应变对其反滤性能影响越大。     

用图像分析法研究有纺土工织物单向受拉时孔径的变化

现有反滤设计中保土准则使用土工织物未受拉时的等效孔径,但平面单向拉伸会导致该值变化,变大则不满足保土准则,变小则不满足透水准则及淤堵准则。有纺织物孔径由孔径分布曲线和特征孔径反映,采用数字图像分析法对两种有纺土工织物单向受拉时孔径变化进行精确测定。有纺织物被单向张拉至3%,6%,9%和12%的平面应变,随着拉应变的增加,两种有纺土工织物开孔面积率增大;孔径分布曲线向孔径大的方向移动;3种特征孔径值（O30,O50和O95）增大,其变化率都与拉应变呈近似线性关系,且小孔径部分相对于大孔径部分随拉伸应变的增长而增大较快。     

Field monitoring of wicking geotextile to reduce soil moisture under a concrete pavement subjected to precipitations and temperature variations

Wicking geotextile can reduce water contents in pavement layers under unsaturated conditions due to capillary action through grooves of wicking fibers. Reduction of soil water content under the pavement can minimize pavement distresses. So far, there have been limited use and verification of the wicking geotextile in reducing water content of soil under concrete pavements in the field. In this field study, moisture sensors were installed in three test sections under a newly-built concrete pavement during its re-construction. The base course in one test section had a higher percentage of small particles than those in other two sections. The wicking geotextile was used between the base course and the subgrade in two test sections while a nonwoven geotextile was used in one test section. All test sections were subjected to precipitations and temperature variations. Field monitoring data showed that the wicking geotextile reduced the volumetric water content (VWC) of an aggregate base more than the nonwoven geotextile and its wicking ability decreased as the content of small particles increased. In addition, the wicking ability of the wicking geotextile decreased as the temperature decreased due to the reduction in the evaporation rate and the increase in the water retention capacity of the soil at low temperatures.     

Laboratory performance of unpaved roads reinforced with woven coir geotextiles

The results of an experimental study conducted to investigate the beneficial use of woven coir geotextiles as reinforcing material in a two-layer pavement section, are presented. Monotonic and repeated loads were applied on reinforced and unreinforced laboratory pavement sections through a rigid circular plate. The effects of placement position and stiffness of geotextile on the performance of reinforced sections were investigated using two base course thicknesses and two types of woven coir geotextiles. The test results indicate that the inclusion of coir geotextiles enhanced the bearing capacity of thin sections. Placement of geotextile at the interface of the subgrade and base course increased the load carrying capacity significantly at large deformations. Considerable improvement in bearing capacity was observed when coir geotextile was placed within the base course at all levels of deformations. The plastic surface deformation under repeated loading was greatly reduced by the inclusion of coir geotextiles within the base course irrespective of base course thickness. The optimum placement position of coir geotextile was found to be within the base course at a depth of one-third of the plate diameter below the surface.     

On the hydraulic behavior of unsaturated nonwoven geotextiles

Geotextiles have been widely used in soil structures for separation, filtration, reinforcing, and drainage. They are often used to provide reinforcement and drainage for retaining walls and embankments. It has been reported, however, that geotextiles may not drain water as effectively as was initially expected. In this study, published data on the hydraulic properties of unsaturated geotextiles are compiled and analyzed in order to highlight the hydraulic characteristics of unsaturated geotextiles.

The application of the van Genuchten equations originally developed for the water characteristic curve and the hydraulic conductivity curve of unsaturated soil to unsaturated geotextiles is then examined and discussed. Finally, the drainage from a one-dimensional sand column having a horizontal geotextile layer was analyzed using the finite element method and the van Genuchten equations to assess the utility of this procedure for further study of unsaturated/saturated water flow within the soil–geotextile system.     

Geotextile filtration opening size under tension and confinement

Nonwoven geotextiles have been used as filters in geotechnical and geoenvironmental works for half a century. They are easy to install and can be specified to meet the requirements for proper filter performance. There are situations where a geotextile filter may be subjected to tensile loads, which may alter relevant filter properties, such as its filtration opening size. Examples of such situations are silty fence applications, geotextile separators, geotextile tubes and geotextiles under embankments on soft soils. This paper investigates the effects of tensile strains on geotextile pore dimensions. A special equipment and testing technique allowed tests to be carried out on geotextile specimens subjected to tension and confinement. The results obtained showed that the variation in filtration opening size depends on the type of strain state the geotextile is subjected, under which the geotextile pore diameter may remain rather constant or increase significantly. However, confinement reduces the geotextile filtration opening size independent on the strain mobilised. An upper bound for the filtration opening size of strained nonwoven geotextiles is introduced and was satisfactory for the geotextile products tested.     

Effect of geosynthetic component characteristics on the potential for GCL internal erosion

Experiments quantifying GCL permittivity and the ultimate water head the GCLs can sustain before the initiation of internal erosion when underlain by a 50 mm angular to subangular gravel subgrade are conducted. The influence of different geotextiles over the subgrade, water heads, hydration periods before testing, masses per unit area of bentonite within the GCL, and ionic strengths of the solution (cation exchange) are considered. Test results show that GCL with the scrim-reinforced nonwoven geotextile over the subgrade has the best hydraulic performance against internal erosion, followed by the woven geotextile coated with a 110 g/m² polypropylene film. A woven or nonwoven is the least useful for preventing internal erosion, with the corresponding threshold water head initiating internal erosion >39 m for scrim-reinforced nonwoven, 21 m for lightly coated woven, 4–5 m for woven and nonwoven alone, respectively. Cation exchange, length of hydration, and mass per unit area of bentonite do not notably affect the threshold water head for the subgrade examined. Once internal erosion occurs, there is a 3-order of magnitude increase in permittivity. The practical implications are discussed.     

Changes in filtration opening size of woven geotextiles subjected to tensile loads

A modified hydrodynamic sieving technique in which the geotextile is subjected to a tensile load is described. This load may be either uni-axial or bi-axial. To date tests have been conducted on two different woven slit-film polypropylene geotextiles and the results illustrate a marked change in the filtration opening size of the geotextiles as the tensile load is increased. The opening size of the thicker geotextile decreased with increasing biaxial load, whereas the opposite occurred for the thinner of the two geotextiles. The geotextiles were loaded up to only about 10% of their minimum ultimate tensile strength and the filtration opening size changed by up to 28%. It is suggested that this effect cannot be ignored in applications where there are in-plane tensile stresses.     

A quasi-2D exploration of optimum design settings for geotextile-reinforced sand in assistance with PIV analysis of failure mechanism

Many earlier studies were focused on testing different types of geosynthetics to investigate effect of reinforcement on bearing capacity, but the effect of tensile strength on the failure mechanism has not been examined sufficiently. Within this scope, a test setup was prepared to apply strip loads on densely compacted reinforced sand under the plane strain condition. The tank containing the reinforced sand was a rectangular prism with perfect transparency, and its interior dimensions were 960 × 200 × 650 mm³. Firstly, optimum values of design variables (depth of first sheet, length and number of sheets, space between sheets, tensile strength of sheets) for the woven geotextile reinforced sand were determined experimentally. Then, the failure mechanisms of the soil, which were reinforced with geotextiles of different tensile strengths, were observed and analyzed with particle image velocimetry (PIV) technique. Consequently, the failure mechanism of the sand with a single geotextile reinforcement was similar to general shear failure of unreinforced soil. Contrarily, the failure surfaces were deeper and longer. Additionally, the deep-footing mechanism reached out large depth in the case of four reinforcement layers. The failure mechanism converted into a punching type due to a hypothetic increase in the bearing depth of reinforcement.     

Clay—Geotextile interaction in large retaining wall models

Large geotextile reinforced clay wall models were built to investigate the mechanism of clay—geotextile interaction and the effects of the geotextile reinforcement on the load-bearing capacity of the clay. A silty clay soil (CL) with an undrained strength of 25 kPa was used as backfill and a low-cost, non-woven, needle-punched geotextile as the reinforcement. No face panels were used. The wrapped back geotextile reinforcement provided the face of the wall. The wall models were tested under uniformly distributed and discrete strip loads. Vertical and horizontal displacements as well as geotextile strains were monitored. The load-bearing capacity of the clay was increased nearly two times with the geotextile reinforcement. For the interpretation of the test results total stress analysis was carried out on the active failure plane taking into account the tensile forces acting in the geotextiles reinforcing layers intersecting the failure plane. Good agreement was found between the measured and the calculated failure loads. The results of the testing programme are promising and encourage further research into the applicability of cohesive soils in geotextile-reinforced soil structures which might have great economic significance in areas where good-quality granular backfill is not readily available.