Geosynthetics

Geosynthetics are the generally polymeric products used to solve civil engineering problems.
This includes eight main product categories: geotextiles, geogrids, geonets, geomembranes,
geosynthetic clay liners, geofoam, geocells and geocomposites. The polymeric nature of the
products makes them suitable for use in the ground where high levels of durability are required.
Properly formulated, however, they can also be used in exposed applications. Geosynthetics are
available in a wide range of forms and materials, each to suit a slightly different end use. These
products have a wide range of applications and are currently used in many civil, geotechnical,
transportation, geoenvironmental, hydraulic, and private development applications including
roads, airfields, railroads, embankments, retaining structures, reservoirs, canals, dams, erosion
control, sediment control, landfill liners, landfill covers, mining, aquaculture and agriculture.
Reinforcement is the synergistic improvement of a total systems strength created by the
introduction of a geotextile, geogrid or geocell (all of which are good in tension) into a soil (that
is good in compression, but poor in tension) or other disjointed and separated material.
Applications of this function are in mechanically stabilized and retained earth walls and steep
soil slopes; they can be combined with masonry facings to create vertical retaining walls. Also
involved is the application of basal reinforcement over soft soils and over deep foundations for
embankments and heavy surface loadings. Stiff polymer geogrids and geocells do not have to be
held in tension to provide soil reinforcement, unlike geotextiles. Stiff 2D geogrid and 3D
geocells interlock with the aggregate particles and the reinforcement mechanism is one of
confinement of the aggregate. The resulting mechanically stabilized aggregate layer exhibits
improved load bearing performance. Stiff polymer geogrids, with rectangular or triangular
apertures, in addition to three-dimensional geocells made from new polymeric alloys are also
increasingly specified in unpaved and paved roadways, load platforms and railway ballast, where
the improved load bearing characteristics significantly reduce the requirements for high quality,
imported aggregate fills, thus reducing the carbon footprint of the construction.
Geotextiles form one of the two largest groups of geosynthetics. Their rise in growth during the
past 35 years has been nothing short of extraordinary. They are indeed textiles in the traditional
sense, but they consist of synthetic fibers rather than natural ones such as cotton, wool, or silk.
Thus biodegradation and subsequent short lifetime is not a problem. These synthetic fibers are
made into flexible, porous fabrics by standard weaving machinery or are matted together in a
random nonwoven manner. Some are also knitted. The major point is that geotextiles are porous
to liquid flow across their manufactured plane and also within their thickness, but to a widely
varying degree. There are at least 100 specific application areas for geotextiles that have been
developed; however, the fabric always performs at least one of four discrete functions:
separation, reinforcement, filtration, and/or drainage.

COIRGREEN:

The different coir types and their characteristics have made coir the most versatile natural fiber
to combat erosion and to restore waters and wetlands. Thus, coir seems to be the miracle fiber of
this century to save the earth, its waters and wetlands Land and Water Magazine
The use of natural fibers for erosion and sedimentation control dates back to the beginning of this
century. The main problems in the early natural fiber textiles (example jute mats) were low
tensile strength, high elongation and low durability. These drawbacks restricted their use to only
less severe erosion problems. An alternate natural fiber that has drawn the attention of the
erosion and sedimentation control industry is coir, the coconut fiber.
One of the most effective and yet natural soil erosion prevention techniques is the use of coir
geotextiles (coir netting) fabrics. CoirGreen geotextiles have no synthetic material but are instead
made out of organic fiber coir, which is extracted from the husk of a coconut. Coir is strong,
durable, waterproof and one of the few natural fibers that is salt water resistant.
The lighter varieties of coir woven geotextiles are used for immediate soil erosion and ordinary
soil conditions while the heavier coir geotextiles are used for embankments, slopes or vegetation.
CoirGreen geotextiles protect the soil until the vegetation permanently covers its mesh. It gives
the plants adequate room to grow and decomposes naturally into humus which will enrich and
nourish the soil. Lasting between two to five years the coir fiber, compared to other natural fibers
such as jute, has several unique features. CoirGreen geotextiles have the ability to retain water
three times more than its actual weight preventing the need to frequently water the plants.
However, at the same time with its adequate space within the mesh it drains the excess water
easily preventing water logging. With an easy installation method the CoirGreen geotextiles need
no chemical treatment as it lets in the right amount of air and light for a deeper rooted plant. It
can also endure animal and human movements that would generally lead to more environmental
decay.
Recognition of coir for sustainable vegetation and erosion control arises from the fact that it is
an abundant, renewable natural resource with an extremely low decomposition rate and high
strength compared to other natural fibers. Coir is woven into thick textiles which are applied like
blankets on the ground in erosion prone areas. Geotextiles made from coir are durable, absorb
water, resist sunlight, facilitate seed germination, and are 100% biodegradable. These blankets
have high strength retention and a slow rate of degradation meaning they last for several years in
field applications.
Geogrids represent a rapidly growing segment within geosynthetics. Rather than being a woven,
nonwoven or knitted textile fabric, geogrids are polymers formed into a very open, gridlike
configuration, i.e., they have large apertures between individual ribs in the transverse and
longitudinal directions. Geogrids are (a) either stretched in one or two directions for improved
physical properties, (b) made on weaving or knitting machinery by standard textile
manufacturing methods, or (c) by bonding rods or straps together. There are many specific
application areas, however, they function almost exclusively as reinforcement materials.

The latest development in stiff polymer geogrid manufacture is based on an isosceles triangular
aperture, produced by a new manufacturing technique from a punched then stretched polymer
sheet. Whereas uniaxial and biaxial geogrids offered maximum in-plane stiffness in one and two
axis, respectively, the triangular aperture results is a near isotropic in-plane stiffness.
The development of methods of preparing relatively rigid polymeric materials by tensile
drawing,[1] in a sense "cold working," raised the possibility that such materials could be used in
the reinforcement of soils for walls, steep slopes, roadway bases and foundation soils. Used as
such, the major function of the resulting geogrids is in the area of reinforcement. This area, as
with many other geosynthetics, is very active, with a number of different products, materials,
configurations, etc., making up today's geogrid market. The key feature of all geogrids is that the
openings between the adjacent sets of longitudinal and transverse ribs, called apertures, are
large enough to allow for soil strike-through from one side of the geogrid to the other. The ribs
of some geogrids are often quite stiff compared to the fibers of geotextiles. As discussed later,
not only is rib strength important, but junction strength is also important. The reason for this is
that in anchorage situations the soil strike-through within the apertures bears against the
transverse ribs, which transmits the load to the longitudinal ribs via the junctions. The junctions
are, of course, where the longitudinal and transverse ribs meet and are connected. They are
sometimes called nodes.
Geonets are formed by a continuous extrusion process into a netlike configuration of parallel
sets of homogeneously interconnected ribs. There are three categories of geonets. The following
are illustrated: Biplanar geonets: These are the original and most common types and consist of
two sets of intersecting ribs at different angles and spacings. The ribs themselves are of different
sizes and shapes for different styles.
Triplanar geonets: These have parallel central ribs with smaller sets of ribs above and beneath
mainly for geometric stability.
Other geonets: These newer geonet structures have either box shaped channels or protruding
columns from an underlying support network.
Each of the above categories have variations within themselves (mainly thickness) and new
product development by various manufacturers is quite active.
All geonets that are currently available are made from polyethylene resin. The density varies
from 0.94 to 0.96 mg/l, with the higher values forming the more rigid products. In this regard,
the resin is true high-density polyethylene (HDPE) unlike the density used in HDPE
geomembranes that is really medium density. The resin is formulated with 2.0 to 2.5% carbon
black (usually in a concentrated form mixed with a polyethylene carrier resin), and 0.25 to 0.75%
additives that serve as processing aids and anti-oxidants.

Geomembrane (GM):
The US market is currently divided between HDPE, LLDPE, fPP, PVC, CSPE-R, EPDM-R and
others (such as EIA-R), and can be summarized as follows (M m2 refers to millions of square
meters.)
high-density polyethylene (HDPE) ~ 35% or 105 M m2
linear low-density polyethylene (LLDPE) ~ 25% or 75 M m2
polyvinyl chloride (PVC) ~ 25% or 75 M m2
flexible polypropylene (fPP) ~ 10% or 30 M m2
chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CSPE) ~ 2% or 6 M m2
ethylene propylene diene terpolymer (EPDM) ~ 3% or 9 M m2
Geosynthetic clay liner (GCL):
A geosynthetic clay liner (GCL) is a woven fabric-like material, primarily used for the lining of
landfills. It is a kind of geomembrane and geosynthetic, which incorporates a bentonite or other
clay, which has a very low hydraulic conductivity. The resulting lower permeability slows the
rate of seepage out of the landfill. Due to environmental laws, any seepage from landfills must be
collected and properly disposed of, otherwise contamination of the surrounding ground water
could cause major environmental and/or ecological problems. The lower the hydraulic
conductivity the more effective the GCL will be at retaining seepage inside of the landfill.
Bentonite composed predominantly (>70%) of Montmorillonite or other expansive clays, are
preferred and most commonly used in GCLs. A general GCL construction would consist of two
layers of geosynthetics stitched together enclosing a layer of processed sodium bentonite.
Typically, woven and/or non-woven textile geosynthetics are used, however polyethylene or
geomembrane layers or geogrid geotextiles materials have also been incorporated into the design
or in place of a textile layer to increase strength.
The engineering function of a GCL is containment as a hydraulic barrier to water, leachate or
other liquids and sometimes gases. As such, they are used as replacements for either compacted
clay liners or geomembranes, or they are used in a composite manner to augment the more
traditional liner materials. The ultimate in liner security is probably a three component composite
geomembrane/geosynthetic clay liner/compacted clay liner which has seen use as a landfill liner
on many occasions.

Differences Between Geosynthetic Clay Liners and Compacted Clay Liners

Characteristic

GCLs
Bentonite clay, adhesives, geotextiles
and/or geomembranes
Factory manufactured and then
installed in the field
~ 6 mm
1010 to 1012 m/s

CCLs
Native soils or blends of soil and
bentonite clay
Construction and/or amended in
the field
300 to 900 mm
109 to 1010 m/s

Rapid, simple installation

Slow, complicated construction

Installed cost

$0.05 to $0.10 per m2

Experience

CQC and CQA are critical

Highly variable (estimated range

$0.07 to $0.30 per m2)
Highly workforce dependent

Material
Construction
Thickness
Permeability of clay
Speed and ease of
construction

Geofoam: EPS geofoam can be used as backfill behind retaining and buried structures to greatly
reduce lateral pressures on the structure. Because the horizontal pressure acting on a retaining
wall is proportional to the weight of the backfill, a less robust retaining structure is needed if the
backfill soil in the active zone behind the retaining wall is replaced with EPS geofoam.
Likewise, the use of EPS geofoam backfill behind retaining and buried structures also limits the
horizontal forces that can develop during earthquakes. In retaining wall applications, adequate
drains should be provided to prevent the development of hydrostatic pressure and uplift due to
buoyancy for sites with shallow groundwater and loose soils.
Advantages of using geofoam include: Low density/ high strength: Geofoam is 1% to 2% the
density of soil with equal strength. Predictable behavior: Geofoam allows engineers to be much
more specific in the design criteria. This is very different than other lightweight fillers, such as
soil, that can be very variable in composition. Inert: Geofoam will not breakdown, so it will not
spread into surrounding soils. This means that geofoam will not pollute the surrounding soil.
Geofoam can also be dug up and reused. Limited labor required for construction: Geofoam can
be installed by hand using simple hand tools. This eliminates the investment and operating cost
of heavy machinery. Cuts down on construction time: Geofoam is quick to install and can be
installed during any type of weather, day or night, resulting in faster installation time.
Slope stabilization is the use of geofoam in order to reduce the mass and gravitational force in an
area that may be subject to failure, such as a landslide. Geofoam is up to 50 times lighter than
other traditional fills with similar compressive strengths. This allows geofoam to maximize the
available right-of-way on an embankment. Geofoams light weight accompanied by its ease to
install reduces construction time and labor costs
Disadvantages of using geofoam include: Fire hazards: Untreated geofoam is a fire hazard.
Vulnerable to petroleum solvents: If geofoam comes in contact with a petroleum solvent, it will
immediately turn into a glue-type substance, making it unable to support any load. Buoyancy:

Forces developed because of buoyancy can result in a dangerous uplift force. Susceptible to
insect damage: Geofoam should be treated to resist insect infestation. If it is not, insects such as
ants can burrow into the geofoam, weakening the material.
Geocell (also known as Cellular Confinement Systems) are three-dimensional honeycombed
cellular structures that form a confinement system when infilled with compacted soil. Extruded
from polymeric materials into strips welded together ultrasonically in series, the strips are
expanded to form the stiff (and typically textured and perforated) walls of a flexible 3D cellular
mattress. Infilled with soil, a new composite entity is created from the cell-soil interactions. The
cellular confinement reduces the lateral movement of soil particles, thereby maintaining
compaction and forms a stiffened mattress that distributes loads over a wider area. Traditionally
used in slope protection and earth retention applications, geocells made from advanced polymers
are being increasingly adopted for long-term road and rail load support. Much larger geocells are
also made from stiff geotextiles sewn into similar, but larger, unit cells that are used for
protection bunkers and walls.
Geocells are regularly used for unpaved road support as well as for stabilization of parking and
staging areas. Geocells can form the facing of mechanically stabilized earth walls and steep soil
slope. They can be built in such a fashion so as to be a gravity mass themselves or be used as
facing for geosynthetic reinforcement. Geocells have been used to reinforce soft or uneven soil
foundations for large area footings, for retaining wall strip footings, for load sharing of covers
over pipelines and other geotechnical applications.
Geocomposite (GC):
The basic philosophy behind geocomposite materials is to combine the best features of different
materials in such a way that specific applications are addressed in the optimal manner and at
minimum cost. Thus, the benefit/cost ratio is maximized. Such geocomposites will generally be
geosynthetic materials, but not always. In some cases it may be more advantageous to use a
nonsynthetic material with a geosynthetic one for optimum performance and/or least cost. As
seen in the following, the number of possibilities is huge the only limits being one's ingenuity
and imagination.
There are five basic functions that can be provided: separation, reinforcement, filtration,
drainage, and containment.