GROUND IMPROVEMENT

TECHNIQUES
(CE 649)
Geosynthetics
Geosynthetics is a generic term for all synthetic materials used in conjunction
with soil, rock and/or any other civil-engineering-related material as
an integral part of a man-made project, structure or system. The term
‘Geosynthetics’ has two parts: the prefix ‘geo’, referring to an end use
associated with improving the performance of civil engineering works
involving earth/ground/soil and the suffix ‘synthetics’, referring to the fact
that the materials are almost exclusively from man-made products. The
materials used in the manufacture of geosynthetics are primarily synthetic
polymers generally derived from crude petroleum oils; although rubber,
fiberglass, and other
materials are also sometimes used for manufacturing geosynthetics.

Geosynthetics materials perform five major function;

1. Separation
2. Reinforcement
3. Filtration
4. Drainage
5. Containment

Use of geosynthetics has basically two aims;

1. To perform better
2. To be more economical than using traditional material
 Types of Geosynthetics

1. Geotextile:
Geotextiles are permeable, polymeric textile products in the form of flexible
sheets. The major point is that geotextile are porous to liquid flow to a
widely varying degree. Geotextile perform at least one of four discrete
functions; separation, reinforcement, filtration and drainage.
 Geotextiles are classified into the following categories based on the
manufacturing process:

a) Woven geotextile: A geotextile produced by interlacing, usually at
right angles, two or more sets of yarns (made of one or several fibres) or
other elements using a conventional weaving process with a weaving
loom.

Advantages:
High in Strength, UV Resistant, Rot Resistant, Resists Biological Degradation,
Chemically Inert, Increases the Life Roads, Strengthens and Supports Aggregates
Woven Geotextile Uses and Applications:

• Road Stabilization
• Ground Stabilization
• Railroad Support
• Aggregate Separation
• Erosion Control

b) Non-woven geotextile: Nonwoven geotextile is a fabric like material
made from long fibers, bonded together by chemical, mechanical, heat or
solvent treatment.

One of the most popular options for drainage, filtration and stabilization is
the Nonwoven Geotextile Fabric. Constructed from a felt-like fabric, these
geotextiles are light in weight and able to both filter and reinforce a
construction areas. Nonwoven geotextiles are commonly used in ditches,
around pipes, underneath drains, or in other areas dealing with high levels of
subsurface drainage or site runoff.

c) Knitted geotextile: A geotextile produced by interlooping one or more
yarns (or other elements) together with a knitting machine, instead of a
weaving loom.

2. Geogrid: It is a planar, polymeric product consisting of a mesh or net-
like regular open network of intersecting tensile-resistant elements, called
ribs, integrally connected at the junctions. The ribs can be linked by
extrusion, bonding or interlacing: the resulting geogrids are respectively
called extruded geogrid, bonded geogrid and woven geogrid.

Extruded geogrids are classified into the following two categories based on
the direction of stretching during their manufacture:

Uniaxial geogrid: A geogrid produced by the longitudinal stretching of a
regularly punched polymer sheet, and therefore it possesses a much higher
tensile strength in the longitudinal direction than the tensile strength in the
transverse direction.

Biaxial geogrid: A geogrid produced by stretching in both the longitudinal
and the transverse directions of a regularly punched polymer sheet, and
therefore it possesses equal tensile strength in both the longitudinal and the
transverse directions.
The key features of geogrid is that the openings between the longitudinal and
transverse ribs, called apertures, are large enough to create interlocking with
the surrounding soil particles. The shape of the apertures are either
elongated ellipse, near squares with rounded corners, rectangles. The
dimension of the apertures vary from about 2.5 to 15 cm. The ribs of the
geogrid are quite stiff compared to the fibres of geotextiles.

3. Geonet: It is a planar, polymeric product consisting of a regular dense
network of integrally connected parallel sets of ribs overlying similar sets at
various angles. At first glance, geonets appear similar to geogrids; however,
geonets are different from geogrids, not mainly in the material or their
configuration but in their functions to perform the in-plane drainage of
liquids or gases.

4. Geomembrane: It is a planar, relatively impermeable, synthetic sheet
manufactured from materials of low permeability to control fluid migration
in a project as a barrier or liner. The materials may be polymeric or asphaltic
or a combination thereof. The term barrier applies when the geomembrane
is used inside an earth mass. The term liner is usually reserved for the cases
where the geomembrane is used as an interface or a surface revetment.

5. Geocell: A three-dimensional, permeable, polymeric honeycomb or web
structure, assembled from geogrids and special bodkins couplings in
triangular or square cells or produced in the factory using strips of needle-
punched polyester or solid high density polyethylene (HDPE)

6. Geofoam: It is a product created by polymeric expansion process
resulting in a foam that consists of many closed but gasfilled cells. The
resulting product is generally in the form of large, but extremely light, blocks
that are stacked side-by-side, providing lightweight fill in numerous
applications.

7. Geosynthetic clay liner (GCL): These are rolls of factory-fabricated
thin layers of bentonite clay sandwiched between two geotextiles or bonded
to a gemembrane. Structural integrity of the composite is obtained by
needle-punching, stitching or physical bonding. GCLs are used as a composite
component beneath a geomembrane or themselves in environmental and
containment applications as well as in transportation, geotechnical, hydraulic
applications.
Advantages of Geosynthtics

non-corrosiveness

highly resistant to biological and chemical degradation

long-term durability under soil cover

high flexibility

minimum volume

lightness

ease of storing and transportation

simplicity of installation

speeding the construction process

making economical and environment-friendly solution

providing good aesthetic look to structures.
 Function of Geosynthetics
The main functions of geosynthetics are;
1. Reinforcement: A geosynthetic performs the reinforcement function by
improving the mechanical properties of a soil mass as a result of its
inclusion. When soil and geosynthetic reinforcement are combined, a
composite material, ‘reinforced soil’, possessing high compressive and
tensile strength (and similar, in principle, to the reinforced concrete) is
produced.
The three reinforcing mechanisms, concerned simply with the types of load
that are supported by the geosynthetic, are
1 Shear, also called sliding: The geosynthetic supports a planar load due to
slide of the soil over it.
2 Anchorage, also called pullout: The geosynthetic supports a planar load due
to its pullout from the soil.
3 Membrane: The geosynthetic supports both a planar and a normal load
when placed on a deformable soil.
2. Separation: If the geosynthetic has to prevent intermixing of adjacent
dissimilar soils and/or fill materials during construction and over a projected
service lifetime of the application under consideration, it is said to perform a
separation function.
 3. Filtration: A geosynthetic may function as a filter that allows for
adequate fluid flow with limited migration of soil particles across its plane
over a projected service lifetime of the application under consideration.
Figure shows that a geosynthetic allows passage of water from a soil mass
while preventing the uncontrolled migration of soil particles.

When a geosynthetics filter is placed adjacent to a base soil (the soil to be

filtered), a discontinuity arises between the original soil structure and the
structure of the geosynthetics. This discontinuity allows some soil particles,
particularly particles closest to the geosynthetics filter and having diameters
smaller than the filter opening size to migrate through the geosynthetics under
the influence of seepage flows.
4. Drainage: If a geosynthetic allows for adequate fluid flow with limited
migration of soil particles within its plane from surrounding soil mass to
various outlets over a projected service lifetime of the application under
consideration, it is said to perform the drainage function.
5. Fluid barrier: A geosynthetic performs the fluid barrier function, if it
acts like an almost impermeable membrane to prevent the migration of
liquids or gases over a projected service lifetime of the application under
consideration.
Application areas

1. Retaining wall: A geosynthetic is mainly used to function as a reinforcement.

It resists the lateral earth pressure and thus maintains the stability of the backfill.
Its presence also causes reduction in the load-carrying requirements of the wall-
facing elements resulting in material and time saving. Filtration and drainage are
secondary functions to be served by the geosynthetic in retaining walls.
Woven geotextiles and geogrids with a high modulus of elasticity are generally
used as soil reinforcing elements in geosynthetic-reinforced retaining walls.

2. Embankments: The construction of embankments over weak/soft
foundation soils is a challenge for geotechnical engineers. In the conventional
method of construction, the soft soil is replaced by a suitable soil or it is
improved (by preloading, dynamic consolidation, lime/cement mixing or
grouting) prior to the placement of the embankment. These options can be either
time consuming, expensive, or both.
The alternate option is to place a geosynthetic (geotextile, geogrid, or
geocomposite) layer over the soft foundation soil and construct the embankment
directly over it .More than one geosynthetic layer may be required, if the
foundation soil has voids or weak zones caused by sinkholes, thawing ice, old
streams, or weak pockets of silt, clay or peat.
The geosynthetic as the basal layer in the embankment over soft foundation soil
can serve one of the following basic functions or a combination thereof:
1 reinforcement
2 drainage
3 separation/filtration.

The reinforcement function usually aims at a temporary increase in the FS of

embankment, which is associated with a faster rate of construction or the use of
steeper slopes that would not be possible in the absence of reinforcement.

The drainage function is associated with the increase in the rate of consolidation to
have a more stable embankment or staged construction. In fact, the geosynthetic
allows for free drainage of the foundation soils to reduce pore pressure buildup
below the embankment

The separation function helps in preventing the mixing of the embankment

material and the soft foundation soil, thus reducing the consumption of
embankment material.
3. Foundation: The geosynthetic-reinforced foundation soils are being used to
support footings of many structures including warehouses, oil drilling platforms,
platforms of heavy industrial equipments, parking areas, and bridge abutments.
In usual construction practice, one or more layers of geosynthetic (geotextile,
geogrid, geocell, or geocomposite) are placed inside a controlled granular fill
beneath the footings.
Such reinforced foundation soils provide improved load-bearing capacity and
reduced settlements by distributing the imposed loads over a wider area of weak
subsoil.

4. Road: Roads often have to be constructed across weak and compressible soil
subgrades. It is therefore common practice to distribute the traffic loads in order
to decrease the stresses on the soil subgrade. This is generally done by placing a
granular layer over the soil subgrade. The granular layer should present good
mechanical properties and enough thickness. The long-term interaction between
a fine soil subgrade and the granular layer, under dynamic loads, is likely to cause
pumping erosion of the soil subgrade and penetration of the granular particles
into the soil subgrade, giving rise to permanent deflections and eventually to
failure.

Geosynthetics, especially geotexiles and geogrids, have been used extensively in

unpaved roads to make their construction economical by reducing the thickness
of the granular layer as well as to improve their engineering performance and to
extend their life. A geosynthetic layer is generally placed at the interface of the
granular layer and the soil subgrade.
Geosynthetics, especially geotextiles and some geo-composites, may also provide
performance benefits from their filtration and drainage functions by allowing
excess pore water pressure, caused by traffic loads in the soil subgrade, to
dissipate into the granular base course and in the case of poor-quality granular
materials, through the geosynthetic plane itself.
Geosynthetic layers are used in paved roads usually at the interface of the
granular base course and the soft soil subgrade. The presence of a
geosynthetic layer at the interface of the granular base course and the soft soil
subgrade improves the overall performance of paved roads, with their long
operating life, because of its separation, filtration, drainage, and reinforcement
functions.
Geosynthetics, especially bitumen-impregnated geotextiles, are used to improve
the paved roads, as a separator and/or a fluid barrier, by providing capillary
breaks to reduce frost action in frost-susceptible soils (fine-grained soils – silts,
clays, and related mixed soils). The paved roads can also be improved by
providing the membrane-encapsulated soil layers (MESL) as a moisture-tight
barrier beneath the wearing course with an aim to reduce the effects of
seasonal water content changes in soils

4. Railways: Geotextiles are also being used in high maintenance locations
such as turnouts, rail crossings, switches and highway crossings. One of the most
important areas served by geotextiles is beneath the mainline track for
stabilization of marginal or poor subgrade, which can suffer from severe mud-
pumping and subsidence.

Four principal functions are provided when a properly designed geosynthetic is

installed within the track structure. These are;

● separation, in new railway tracks, between soil subgrade and new ballast;
● filtration of soil pore water rising from the soil subgrade beneath the geosynthetic,
● lateral confinement-type reinforcement in order to contain the overlying ballast
stone;
● lateral drainage of water entering from above or below the geosynthetic within its
plane leading to side drainage ditches.
 5. Filters and Drains: Geosynthetics are being increasingly used either as
filters, in the form of geotextiles (nonwovens and lightweight wovens), in
conjunction with granular materials and/or pipes or as both filters and drains in
the form of geocomposites.

There are several application areas for filters and drains including buried drains as
pavement edge drains/under drains, seepage water transmission systems in pavement
base course layers and railway tracks, abutments and retaining wall drainage systems,
slope drainage, erosion control systems, landfill leachate collection systems, drains to
accelerate consolidation of soft foundation soils, drainage blanket to dissipate the
excess pore pressure beneath embankments and within the dams and silt
fences/barriers.
6. Slopes: Geosynthetics in the slopes can be used for erosion control and
stabilization.
Soil erosion by moving water is caused by two mechanisms: (1) detachment of
particles due to raindrop impact and (2) movement of particles from surface
water flow.

In recent years geosynthetic-reinforced slopes have provided innovative and cost-

effective solutions to slope stabilization problems, particularly after a slope failure
has occurred or if a steeper than safe unreinforced slope is desirable.

7. Landfills: An engineered landfill is a controlled method of waste disposal. It
is not an open dump. It has a carefully designed and constructed envelope that
encapsulates the waste and that prevents the escape of leachate.
 Liner system: This system consists of multiple barrier and drainage layers and
is placed on the bottom and lateral slopes of a landfill to act as a barrier
system against the leachate transport, thus preventing contamination of the
surrounding soil and groundwater.

Leachate collection and removal system: The materials used to construct this
system are high-permeability materials including the following:
● geosynthetic drainage materials such as thick needle-punched nonwoven
geotextiles, geonets, geomats and geocomposites.
7. Other applications: