Special Issue - 2015 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)

ISSN: 2278-0181
NCETEMS-2015 Conference Proceedings

An Introduction to Geosynthetics Material

Sonam Jakhar 1, Ritu Charkhiya 2 , Manju Hooda3
1,2,3
Department of Civil Engineering ,
Ganga Institute of Technology and Management,
Kablana, Jhajjar, Haryana, India

Abstract— This paper focuses on geosynthetics products, their influence on so many aspects of civil engineering practice
applications and design methodologies required for as geosynthetics. In 1970, there were only five or six
reinforcing soil and environmental protection work. From geosynthetics available, while today more than 600
decades Geosynthetics are widely used construction materials different geosynthetic products are sold throughout the
for geotechnical and environmental applications in most parts
world. The size of the market, both in terms of square
of the world. Because they constitute manufactured materials,
new products and applications are developed on a routine meters produced and their value, is indicative of their
basis to provide solutions to routine and critical problems influence. In many cases, the use of a geosynthetic can
alike. Results from recent research and from monitoring of significantly increase the safety factor, improve
instrumented structures throughout the years have led to new performance, and reduce costs in comparison with
design methods for different applications of geosynthetics. conventional design and construction alternates. The first
Keywords— Wovens, Non-Wovens, Knitted, Biogradable, Nets, part of this paper is an introduction to geosynthetic
grids, Membranes materials; included are brief descriptions of their types and
manufacture, functions and applications, properties and
I. INTRODUCTION tests, design, selection, and specifications. The second part
Historically, major developments in structural deals with the use of geosynthetics for soil reinforcement,
engineering have only been possible because of parallel with specific applications to embankments on soft
developments in the technology of construction materials. foundations, steep slopes, and retaining walls and
Larger and more elaborate structures became possible as abutments.
we went from using wood to building stone to concrete to Common types of geosynthetics used for soil
reinforced concrete and most recently to prestressed reinforcement include geotextiles (particularly woven
reinforced concrete. The development of steel enabled the geotextiles), geogrids and geocells. Geotextiles are
construction of longer span bridges and taller buildings continuous sheets of woven, nonwoven, knitted or stitch-
than were possible using wrought iron or other traditional bonded fibers or yarns. The sheets are flexible and
construction materials. Because the materials of permeable and generally have the appearance of a fabric.
geotechnical engineering are soil and rock, it is difficult to Geogrids have a uniformly distributed array of apertures
think of similar parallel developments in geotechnical between their longitudinal and transverse elements. These
construction and earthen materials in our field. apertures allow direct contact between soil particles on
Compaction and other soil improvement techniques either side of the sheet. Geocells are relatively thick, three-
occurred largely because of developments in construction dimensional networks constructed from strips of polymeric
equipment by manufacturers and contractors. sheet. The strips are joined together to form interconnected
Geosynthetics have been increasingly used in geotechnical cells that are infilled with soil and sometimes concrete. In
and environmental engineering for the last 4 decades. Over some cases 0.5 m to 1 m wide strips of polyolefin geogrids
the years, these products have helped designers and have been linked together with vertical polymeric rods
contractors to solve several types of engineering problems used to form deep geocell layers called geomattresses.
where the use of conventional construction materials would
be restricted or considerably more expensive. There is a II. TYPES OF GEOSYNTHETIC
significant number of geosynthetic types and geosynthetic There are many geosynthetics materials available which
applications in geotechnical and environmental engineering. can be used for different purposes. Few of the
Due to space limitations, this paper will examine the geosynthetics materials are as follows:
advances on the use of these materials in reinforcement and
in environmental protection. Polymeric reinforcement A. Geotextiles : Geotextiles are defined as “any permeable
materials are a subset of a much larger recent development textile used with foundation soil, rock, earth, or any other
in civil engineering materials: geosynthetics. geotechnical engineering-related material as an integral
Geosynthetics are planar products manufactured from part of a human-made project, structure, or system”. They
polymeric materials (the synthetic) used with soil, rock, or are typically the most used geosynthetic material for
other geotechnical-related material (the geo) as part of a agriculture purposes. These are fabric or cloth-like
civil engineering project or system. There are few materials that are classified based on the method used to
developments that have had such a rapid growth and strong place the threads or yarns in the fabric: either woven or

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Special Issue - 2015 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
NCETEMS-2015 Conference Proceedings

non-woven. Geotextiles typically come in rolls up to about 2 to 5%. These products protect the soil surface from
approximately 5.6m (18 ft) wide and 50 to 150m (160 to water and wind erosion while accelerating vegetative
500 ft) long [2]. development.

Fig. 1 Example of an geotextile material

i) Woven: These cloth-like fabrics are formed by the

uniform and regular interweaving of threads or yarns in
Fig. 4 Example of geogrid material
two directions as shown in Figure 1, below. These products
have a regular visible construction pattern, and where
present, have distinct and measurable openings. Woven
Geogrids are primarily used for reinforcement; they are
geotextiles are typically used for soil separation,
formed by a regular network of tensile elements with
reinforcement, load distribution, filtration, and drainage.
apertures of sufficient size to interlock with surrounding
They can have high tensile strength and relative low strain
fill material.
or limited elongation under load (typically up to 15%) [9].
3).Geomembranes
Geomembranes are low- permeability geosynthetics used
as fluid barriers.
4).Geocomposite
Geotextiles and related products such as nets and grids can
be combined with geomembranes and other synthetics to
take advantage of the best attributes of each component.
These products are called geocomposites, and they may be
Fig. 2 Example of an woven geotextile material composites of geotextile-geonets, geotextile-geogrids,
ii)Non-Woven: These felt-like fabrics are formed by a geotextile- geomembranes, geomembrane-geonets,
random placement of threads in a mat and bonded by heat- geotextile-polymeric cores, and even three- dimensional
bonding, resin-bonding or needle punching. These products polymeric cell structures. There is almost no limit to the
do not have any visible thread pattern. Non-woven variety of geocomposites that are possible and useful. The
geotextiles are typically used for soil separation, general generic term encompassing all these materials is
stabilization, load distribution, and drainage but not for soil geosynthetic.
reinforcement such as in retaining walls. They have a
relatively high strain and stretch considerably under load
(about 50%).

Fig. 5 Example of different types of geotextile material

Fig. 1 Example of an non woven geotextile material

2).Geogrids and geomesh

Geo-Grids are open grid-like materials of integrally III. MANUFACTURING OF GEOSYNTHETIC
connected polymers. . They are planar polymeric material MATERIAL
consisting of regular open network of connected tensile Most geosynthetics are made from synthetic polymers such
elements with square or rectangular openings. The linkage as polypropylene, polyester, polyethylene, polyamide, PVC,
between the tensile elements can be extrusion, bonding or etc. These materials are highly resistant to biological and
interlacing. They are used primarily for soil reinforcement. chemical degradation. Natural fibers such as cotton, jute,
Their strength can be greater than the more common bamboo, etc., could be used as geotextiles and geogrids,
geotextiles. Geogrids have a low strain and stretch only especially for temporary applications, but with few

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Special Issue - 2015 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
NCETEMS-2015 Conference Proceedings

exceptions they have not been promoted or researched as 3).Woven and knitted geotextiles
widely as polymeric geosynthetics. In manufacturing
Manufactured by weaving or knitting yarns of drawn
geotextiles, elements such as fibers or yarns are combined
polymer. These yarns may be flat tape, mono-filament,
into planar textile structures. The fibers can be continuous
multi-filament, and fibrilatted (flat tape slit and twisted).
filaments, which are very long thin strands of a polymer, or
The yarn type dictates the properties of the finished
staple fibers, which are short filaments, typically 20 to 100
geotextile.
mm long. The fibers may also be produced by slitting an
extruded plastic sheet or film to form thin flat tapes. In 4).Geonets
both filaments and slit films, the extrusion or drawing
process elongates the polymers in the direction of the draw Polymer mesh which is extruded in a tubular form & slit
and increases the fiber strength. Geotextile type is in the machine direction to create a sheet. Essentially a
layer of rods overlaying a second layer at an angle. A third
determined by the method used to combine the filaments or
layer can be introduced to increase thickness and, thus,
tapes into the planar textile structure. The vast majority of
flow capacity.
geotextiles are either woven or nonwoven. Woven
geotextiles are made of monofilament, multifilament, or 5).Geomembranes
fibrillated yarns, or of slit films and tapes. Although the
weaving process is very old, nonwoven textile manufacture Continuous filament fibres are extruded from spinnerets to
is a modem industrial development. Synthetic polymer form a swirling pattern of fibres across a web. The web
fibers or filaments are continuously extruded and spun, passes through a pair of heated rolls or an oven, where the
blown or otherwise laid onto a moving belt. Then the mass fibres are bonded together to form a uniplanar geotextile.
of filaments or fibers are either needlepunched, in which This method generates low-cost products that are used in
the filaments are mechanically entangled by a series of sub-base/subgrade separation. Polymer sheet that is
small needles, or heat bonded, in which the fibers are extruded flat or as a tube to be slit in the machine direction.
welded together by heat and/or pressure at their points of The textured (roughened) versions are for use on slopes
contact in the nonwoven mass. Stiff geogrids with integral where higher levels of interface friction angles are required.
junctions are manufactured by extruding and orienting 6).Geocomposites
sheets of polyolefins. Flexible geogrids are made of
polyester yarns joined at the crossover points by knitting or Heat and/or adhesives are used to create single
weaving, and coated with a polymer. For additional components by bonding barriers, drains, filters, protectors
details on the composition, materials, and manufacturing of and reinforcement in different combinations. The objective
geosynthetics, see Koerner (1998). is to produce materials which are multi-functional and are
faster to install than the individual components. Interface
1).Needlepunched, non-wovens geotextiles friction becomes an issue when geosynthetics are placed on
Needlepunching is a mechanical process which, rather slopes and bonded materials address this potential problem.
than using heat, fixes the fibres relative to each other by IV. FUNCTIONS AND APPLICATIONS
entanglement. Reciprocating banks of barbed needles
compact loose fibre into a labyrinth of interconnected 1. Filtration
fibres. 2. Drainage
The use of continuous filament fibres creates geotextiles 3. Separation
with the separation/filtration functions. Using staple,
crimped fibres enables the production of thick geotextiles 4. Reinforcement
that are suitable for heavy-duty filtration/protection and 5. Fluid barrier, and
they also provide the additional function of protection.
6. Protection
Heat-bonded, non-wovens geotextiles
Geosynthetics are strong, durable and flexible materials.
Continuous filament fibres are extruded from spinnerets They do not crack or separate from the soil even if the soil
to form a swirling pattern of fibres across a web. The web settles and are superior to concrete or metallic material.
passes through a pair of heated rolls or an oven, where the Geosynthetics are very versatile and can perform many
fibres are bonded together to form a uniplanar geotextile. functions and some individual materials can
This method generates low-cost products that are used in simultaneously perform two or more functions. The
sub-base/subgrade separation. applications of the geosynthetics materials in various fields
2).Geogrids are considered really important. Some of the applications
of geosynthetics are discussed as under:
Three processes are: The first heats and stretches polymer
that has been pre-punched with a regular pattern of holes. 1). Separation
The second comprises bundles of polymer fibres in a mesh Porous geosynthetics when sandwiched between two soil
pattern that are coated with bitumen or a PVC (polyvinyl types with vastly different particle sizes perform the
chloride). The third takes sheathed bundles of fibres that function of keeping them separate and prevent the mixing
are then welded. of particles. For example, when road pavements are

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Special Issue - 2015 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
NCETEMS-2015 Conference Proceedings

constructed, a base course material that is often gravel V.GEOSYNTHETICS PROPERTIES AND TESTS
sized is placed directly on the subgrade soil. If the subgrade
Introduction Because of the wide variety of products
is soft clay, the gravel will tend to penetrate into subgrade
available, with different polymers, filaments, weaving
soil under traffic load resulting in a mixed soil [3]. The
patterns or bonding mechanisms, thickness, mass, etc.,
performance of the base course deteriorates with time due
geosynthetics have a considerable range of physical and
to mixing. This can be prevented by placing geosynthetics
mechanical properties. A further complicating factor is the
at the interface between the subgrade and the base course.
variability of some properties, even within the same
It prevents mixing and results in improved pavement
manufactured lot or roll; also, some differences may be due
performance.
to the test procedures themselves. Thus, determination of
2) Filtration Porous geosynthetics, when located in the design properties is not necessarily easy, although
between two soil layers, one fine grained and the other geosynthetic testing has progressed significantly in the past
coarse grained, through which water is flowing, perform 20 yr. Standard procedures for testing geosynthetics have
the function of a transition filter [6]. They allow water to been developed by ASTM and other standards
pass through them without passage of fine particle of soil development organizations throughout the world,
along with the water. Geosynthetics can be used in place of particularly in Europe, Japan, and Australia. The design
transition filters of soil, if suitable soil is not available near properties required for a design will depend on the specific
the construction site. application and the associated function(s) the geosynthetic
is supposed to provide. Geosynthetic properties can be
3). Drainage
classified as (1) general, (2) index, and (3) performance
Porous geosynthetics with high in-plane properties. See Holtz et al. (1997) for a listing of the
permeability perform the functions of drains where these various properties under these categories, while Koerner
are placed within a soil mass to intercept seeping water and and Hsuan (2001) describe test methods for the various
carry it rapidly along the in-plane direction without geosynthetics properties, including those appropriate for
migration of fine particles. geomembranes and other products used for waste
containment.
4). Reinforcement Geosynthetics with high tensile strength
perform the function of reinforcement in a soil mass when 1) General and Index Properties and Tests
these are placed in single or multi layers to improve the
General properties include the polymer, mass per unit area,
engineering behaviour of the soil mass. Soil by itself
thickness, roll dimensions and weight, specific gravity, etc.
behaves well under compression but is poor in tension and
Index tests do not give an actual design property in most
the performance of the soil is enhanced by the tension
cases, but they do provide a qualitative assessment of the
carrying capacity of geosynthetics. This improves the
property of interest. When determined using standard test
bearing capacity of soft soil, enhances stability of steep
procedures, index test values can be used for product
slopes and reduce earth pressure behind retaining structures.
comparison, specifications, quality control purposes, and as
5). Hydraulic Barriers an indicator of how the product might survive the
construction process. These latter properties are called
Geosynthetics that are impermeable in the cross-plane and
constructability or survivability properties. Index tests
in-plane directions perform the function of hydraulic
include uniaxial mechanical strength (grab tensile; load-
barriers when placed in a soil mass by preventing seepage
strain; creep, tear, and seam strength); multiaxial rupture
of water through the soil mass. Seepage of water from strength (puncture, burst, and cutting resistance; flexibility);
canals can be controlled by placing a geomembrane at the endurance or durability tests (abrasion resistance; UV
base and along the sides of the canal.
stability; chemical and biological resistance; wet-dry and
6). Surface Erosion Control temperature stability); and hydraulic index tests (apparent
opening size, percent open area; pore size distribution;
Geosynthetics can be used for temporary or permanent porosity; permeability and permittivity; transmissivity).
erosion control measures along side slopes. Temporary
erosion control geosynthetics comprise of natural 2) Performance Properties and Tests
biodegradable fibers such as jute . They are spread on the
Performance properties require testing the geosynthetic
slope in the form of grids or mats and they prevent erosion
and the soil together in order to obtain a direct assessment
until vegetative growth occurs and later degrade.
of the property of interest. Because performance tests
Permanent erosion control geosynthetics are porous
should be conducted under design specific conditions and
synthetic polymeric products that furnish erosion control, with soil samples from the site, these tests must be
aid vegetative growth and become entangled with the performed under the direction of the design engineer.
vegetation to provide reinforcement to the root system.
Performance tests are not normally used in specifications;
7). Protection rather, geosynthetics should be preselected for performance
testing based on index values, or performance test results
Geosynthetics are used to prevent an under laying layer should be correlated to index values for use in
from damage that may occur due to presence of angular specifications. Examples of performance tests include in-
material such as gravel and stones above the layer. soil stress-strain, creep, friction/adhesion, and dynamic

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Special Issue - 2015 International Journal of Engineering Research & Technology (IJERT)
ISSN: 2278-0181
NCETEMS-2015 Conference Proceedings

tests; puncture; chemical resistance; and filtration or be provided to confirm that no materials will migrate or be
clogging resistance tests. extracted from the geosynthetic. Alternatively, that the
nature or the levels of any extracts do no present a risk to
3)Other properties for consideration
the environment.
Whilst most geosynthetics are manufactured from
VI. CONCLUSIONS
polymers, which are relatively inert materials, some are
more susceptible to chemical, biological or mechanical This paper presented recent advances in geosynthetic
damage than others. Durability must be considered for products, on the utilization of these materials in reinforced
both installation and in service. To quote a leading soil structures and in environmental applications. Therefore,
consultant “a layer of cling film has a lower permeability the expectation is that innovations in products, types and
than a metre of compacted clay”. Areas to consider are: properties will continue to take place, adding to the already
vast range of applications of these materials.This type of
i)UV resistance :The performance of most polymers is
structure can be cost- effective not only under static
degraded, to different extents, by ultra violet light (UV).
loading but also in regions where significant seismic
The polymer bonds breakdown and this can result in a loss
activities are expected. New construction methodologies
in properties. If geosynthetics are to be exposed for more
have also broaden the applications of geosynthetic
than 30 days in the UK, it is recommended that they should
reinforced soil retaining wall, which include new facing
contain a well-dispersed UV inhibitor that protects the
units and that reduces the construction time, costs and
polymer chains. Carbon black is the most cost-effective
allow better aesthetic conditions for the final structure.
agent for these purposes. Specifications should therefore
This method is a significant advance on existing design
include an accurate description of the type of UV
approaches and will allow the construction of cheaper
protection and the concentration by weight - 1% is typical.
structures. The use of geosynthetics has also led to major
This should be the concentration of the carbon black and
advances in environmental applications.
not the weight of carbon black dispersion that is added to
the polymer. Carbon black comprises very fine particles REFERENCES
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