STUDY ON GEOSYNTHETICS –

APPLICATIONS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

V.GUNASEKARAN
Lecturer Senior Grade, Department of Civil Engineering, Nachimuthu Polytechnic College, Pollachi, India

Abstract - Construction using geosynthetics are becoming more popular in civil engineering field. It is
due to reduction in construction cost and availability of technology. This paper briefly explains the various
applications of geosynthetics in civil engineering field. Here this paper will be dealing with the use like
geosynthetics as reinforcement for foundation of small bridge and culverts, geofoarms embankment,
geosynthetics for ground improvement, use of continuous fibres in construcon, geofabrics in land fill
containment, stabilization of steep hill terrain, geotextiles in road strengthening and application to
railways.

Key Words – Geosynthetic, Geotexitiles, Geofoam, Geomembrane, Application in civil

engineering, etc…

I. INTRODUCTION
An exciting new concept in engineered material has emerged for the civil engineering community.
The rapidity at which the related products are being developed and used is nothing short of amazing-ie
geosynthetics. The reasons for this are numerous, among which are the following:

 They are indeed needed.

 They can be rapidly installed.
 They generally replace raw material resources.
 They generally replace difficult designs using conventional materials.
 They are being aggressively marketed

1.1 BASIC DESCRIPTION OF GEOSYNTHETICS

Geosynthetics are synthetic products used to stabilize terrain. They are 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. They can also be used in exposed applications. Geosynthetics are available in a wide range of
forms and materials. 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.
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 Fig 1: Flow chart of GEO-SYNTHETICS
1.2 GEOTEXTILES
Geotextiles forms the largest group of the geosynthetic. Their rise in growth during the past 10
years has been nothing short of awesome. They are indeed textiles in traditional sense, but consist of
synthetic fiber rather than natural ones like coir. Thus biodegradation is not a problem. The fibers are made
into flexible, porous fabrics by standard weaving machinery or are matted random or nonwoven manner,
some are also knitted. The major point is that they are porous to water flow across their manufactured plane
and also within their plane, but a widely varying degree. There are 80 specific application areas for the
geotextiles that have been developed. However the fabric always performs at least one of the five discreet
functions
 Separation
 Reinforcement
 Filtration
 Drainage
 Moisture barrier

Fig 2: Geotextiles
1.3 GEOGRIDS
Geogrids represents a small area but rapidly growing segment of the geosynthetic area. Rather than
being a woven, nonwoven or knit textile fabric, Geogrids are plastic formed in to a very open netlike
configuration. Often they are stretched into one or two directions for improved physical properties. They
function in two ways
 Separation
 Reinforcement

Fig 3: Geogrids
1.4 GOEMEMBRANES
They represent the second largest group of geosynthetics and in dollar volume are almost equal to the
sales of geotextiles. The material themselves are impervious thin sheets of rubber or plastic material used
primarily for lining and covers liquid storage impoundments. Thus the primary function is always as a liquid
or vapour barrier

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 Fig 4: Geombrane Fig 5: Geombrane used for Fish Pond

Fig 6: Application of Geosynthetics

II APPLICATION OF GEOSYNTHETICS IN CIVIL ENGINEERING

2.1 USE OF GEOSYNTHETICS AS A REINFORCEMENT FOR FOUNDATION FOR SMALL

BRIDGE AND CULVERTS
Small bridges like culverts, in some cases can be constructed as an integral part of an
embankment. To reduce the deformation arriving from the settlement difference, reinforcement of the
foundation by one or more layers of geofabris can be a good solution. Considerable experiments have
been made with flexible construction like corrugated steel pipes. One road in Hassan had to cross a
valley with 3m to 4m alluvial organic sites by an embankment of 6m height. For the stream a steel pipe
of 2.5m diameter was planned. In the first it was planned to excavate all of soft soil and replace it
against a rock fill. Excavation was reduced to a total 1m below the pipe and nonwoven was laid as a
separation layer was used. The embankment was constructed under control of settlement gauges twice a
day during construction and later on in longer distance. To stabilize the system it is possible, to construct
a mattress out of a soil with high friction, reinforced with several layers of geosythetics

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 Fig 7: Geosynthetics in culvert
2.2 GEOSYNHETICS FOR STABILITY OF FILL IN EMBANKEMENT.
Multiple layers of high strength grids imparts stability for fills and make it possible to use
steep slope and reduction of land acquisition and fill materials. It also reduces the need for retaining
walls. The grid which is light and flexible made of polyester of high modulus provides resistance both
by soil resistance by shear and passive pressure. By its flexibility, the grid bends and provides tension
along the failure plane.
The constructions of reinforcement embankment are of different types. The straight reinforcement
system can be applied for shallow slopes where special face protection is not required. The reinforcement
is laid horizontally and straight and compacted. At best a geomat is placed at the face to prevent the
erosion.
However, when larger heights are involved and slopes steeper, other methods are required. Warp
round method which uses the reinforcement itself as warp on the face is used with and without form work.
Geotextiles are easy to fold but with geogrids stapling may be required.

Fig 8: Geotextiles in Embankment Fig 9: Geogrid in Retaining walls

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2.3 GEOFOAMS FOR EMBANKMENT
Horvath (1996) reviewed the use of geofoams especially polymeric materials as light weight fills.
These are only 1 to 2% of weight of soil or rock, but sufficiently strong to support many types of load, and
bring about reduction of settlement and increased stability. Essentially these are extruded expanded
polystyrene made by block moulding. The only disadvantage of this product is that they have to be
protected from gasoline or petroleum hydrocarbons. Their use as light weight fill started early 1970. A
modification of this product using glued polystyrene porous block could be used with large compressibility
to permit yielding. This property is also useful in their use to reduce vibrations and damp earth quake
induced movements. By proper shape moulding geofoams material can be made to transit fluid even
though the material itself has low permeability. The facing of moulded panel should covered with
geotextiles which provides separation and filtration functions.

Fig 10: Geofoams in Embankment

2.4 GEOSYNTHETIC DRAIN FOR GROUND IMPROVEMENT
Prefabricated vertical drains have been used for dissipation of excess pore pressure since 1948. The
modern geosynthetic drain made of thin nonwoven filtering material enclosing a synthetic core having
different profiles formed either at the edge or on one side by thermal bonding or ultrasonic welding. The
outer filter sheath allows the pore water to seep through out it while retaining the soil particle and the central
core helps in easy draining of water. Most of these drains are 100mm wide and about 4mm thick, the filter
being made of either nonwoven polyester or polypropylene or polyethylene. Some of the commercial types
of prefabricated vertical drains are Membradrain, Tenax, Amerdrain.
Kuberan(1999) reported the use of geotextiles and geodrains in acceleration the consolidation of an
export terminal facility of the soil rap river near Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam. The soil condition at the site
consisted of very soft clay up to 18 m with an N value of near zero and from 18 to 32 m N value varied from
0 to 10. The procedure consisted of removing the thick Vegetation and covering it by polybelt, TS 550 so
that the site became accessible for walking. A few natural drains are existed in the site were linked with a
layer of geotextile and filled with sand. On this surface another layer of geotextiles was laid and sand blanket
was placed. Portable sewing machine was used to stitch the blankets. The length of the geodrain was fixed at
34m from the top of the sand blanket which was of 1m thickness and spread in layers and compacted by
vibratory roller.
The geodrains 10 cm wide was installed in a triangular pattern at a spacing of 98 cm.Heavy duty
crawled mounted cranes were used to support 36 m high mast made of 50 cm diameter. The Vertical mast
supported a mandrel of high tensile steel through which the geodrain passed. The drain of the mandrel was
pulled down by a steel rope powered by a hydraulic motor casing the mandrel to be pushed down. The
geodrain bottom was connected to a anchor plate which stayed in place as the mandrel was retrieved total of
nearly 15,000 drains were used. The use of the geodrains and geotextiles was found to accelerate the
settlement and improVe the stability.

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 Fig 11: Geosynthetic in Drain

2.5 USE OF CONTINUOUS FIBRES

As against fabrics, the use of fiber in continuous form to provide cohesion to cohesion less soil for
construction of structure is termed as texol method.
Texol is new material: however, in contrast with materials bound with cement, bitumen or other
binders, the texol material has a fairly high deformability. Unconfined compression tests lead to failure for
6-10 % of axial deformation and secondly, texol is as permeable as the material without yarn.
According to method and equipment used for production, the geometrical arrangement of the yarn
within the material vary in present practice, this arrangement preferably horizontal and it has been shown
that the resulting cohesion is anisotropic. Anisotropy of cohesion is taken into account in the design of
texol structures.
The texol material has a wide variety of potential application; retaining structures. Foundation layers under
railway and roads, shear resistant drains and filters, foundation blanket on the soft soil, anti-seismic
structure, protection against erosion, shock resistant structures, etc. presently, the application which has
been essentially developed are retaining structures.
The sites where the largest amount of texol has been used are located on the A7 motorway, south of
Lyon, towards the Mediterranean Sea. The problem was to add one lane motorway in each direction
without enlarging the right of way. Therefore the slope of the cut section had to be steepened. For long
term stability these section needed a retaining structure, this solution has two main advantages; cost and
appearance.
Savings are mainly due to reduction of earth moving quantities and to the use of local natural sand
for the production of texol.

2.6 APPLICATION IN RAILWAYS

Raymond (1986) reported the case history of geotextiles in installation of twin outs in Canadian National
Railways since 1983. He recommended mechanically bound 100% needle punched non woven geotextile with at
least 80 penetrations / square cm and resin treated. A weight of 1050 gm/square meter was found necessary
to resist the harsh environment of track bed. Good elongation is required as the geotextile has to stretch around
large particle. In addition the fibers have to withstand abrasion and loss of permeability. It is essential that the
nonwoven geotextiles be unpacked just before installation as it may dramatically increase the weight on soaking
if it rains and handling becomes difficult.
A typical installation of turnout geotextiles starts from ploughing the shoulder ballast on the ditch
sides of the track to a depth of 200- 300 mm below the ties. When the switch under cutter, starting 9 m from the
switch point is used to excavate a trench for its blade. The undercutter blade and trenches bucket when
remove the ballast to a depth of 300 mm below the track ties and sleeper within the trench. The process is

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repeated on the other side of the switch to a location well beyond the point. Once completed the geotextile was
laid Out adjacent to the track and cut to required length. The end point of the geotextile was then lifted and
pulled under the track and aligned to its correct position under the widened of the turnout, with its edges
trailing into the two ditches left on the either side of the track by the bucket wheels. The upper layer of
geotextile was then fanfolded towards the centre of the track
Cotton bags, approximately 150 mm in diameter, filled with fine gravel sized crushed aggregate, were then
placed on the geotextile as spacers between the geotextile and the base of the ties. Two bags were placed at the
end of every fourth to fifth tie, so that when the rail jacks were removed the base of the ties was 30 cm above the
geotextile. Once removed one set of rail jacks were repositioned at the fanfold end on three ballast bags placed
side by side. The fanfold was unfolded and the process repeated until the geotextile extended the full length of
turnout. Once the geotextile had been fully extended and the ballast bags supporting the track were in place with
the track jacks removed, the turnout was ready to receive the ballast. The ballast cars were first unloaded in to the
drains and then across the tracks until the ties were overflowing. The turnout could accept traffic in this condition
final tamping and clean for the next day. In addition to the final clean up, the next days work involved installation
of the perpendicular trenching and piping at both ends of the bucket made trenches on the both sides of the track,
so as to allow water discharge from the drains to the side ditching

Fig 12: Geosynthetic in Railways

2.7 GEOSYNTHETICS IN ROAD STRENGTHENING

Kulkarani et al (1997) reported of geosynthetics for crack prevention and strengthening in black
cotton soil area. In Malhar peth-pandharpur road in Maharashtra a certain stretch falls in high rain fall zone
and this causes inundation and high pore pressure resulting the pavement with swelling and shrinkage
alternatively. Large potholes and undulating formations coupled with heavy traffic resulted in damage
which were considered not amenabl to conventional repair.
The remedial measures involved raising and rebuilding the section with a levelling course 80 mm
trap metal followed by a bi oriented polypropylene grid.

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 Fig 13: Geosynthetics in Road construction

III CONCLUSIONS

This newly came construction material, geotextiles, is having a large number of application in civil
engineering filed. Researchers are going on all over the world to find out a new material which is cheaper than
the present one. One of the solutions is the use of natural fibres like Jute or Coir. Much of the developed
countries are not interested in the natural fibre. Developing countries like India is finding more interests on the
natural fibres fields. In India, the most of the researches are focusing on the reducing the biodegradable nature
of these material. However use of the natural fibre based geotextiles will make them more economic and eco-
friendly than the synthetic one.

REFERENCES
1. Korner R.M(1986) “Designing with geotextiles", Prentice Hall Inc
2. Kuberan R (1999) “Geotextiles and Geodrains to improve soft clay deposits in Vietnam", IGC
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3. Railway Design Standards Organisation (1990) ”Guide line-erosion Ministry of control by
Jute", Railways, Govt. of India
4. Raymond G.P (1994) “State of the Art; Railway Rehabilitation Geotextiles”, Geosynthetic
World, Wiely Eastern Limited.
5. Esmaili, Kianoosh Hatami, Gerald A “Influence of matric suction on geotextile reinforcement-
marginal soil interface strength”. Pages 139-153(2014)
6. Wei Guo, Jian Chu, Wen Nie “Analysis of geosynthetic tubes inflated by liquid and
consolidated soil” (2014) Pages 277-283.
7. K. Rajagopal “Studies on geosynthetic-reinforced road pavement structures” (2014)
8. Sadok Benmebarek, Fouad Berrabah, Naïma Benmebarek & Lamine “Effect of Geosynthetic on
the Performance of Road Embankment over Sabkha Soils in Algeria” Belounar International
Journal of Geosynthetics and Ground Engineering volume 1, Article number: 35 (2015)

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