SEDL / STP / STP1076-EB / STP23499S

Influence of Geotextile Structure on Pore Size Determination

Rigo, JM
State University of Liege,

Lhote, F
State University of Liege,

Rollin, AL
Ecole Polytechnique, Montreal, Quebec

Mlynarek, J
Agricultural University of Poznan, Poznan,

Lombard, G
Textile Technological Centre, St.-Hyacinthe, Quebec

Pages: 12    Published: Jan 1990

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Abstract

Filtration performance of a geotextile is related to its capacity to retain soil particles over time without clogging. A pore size determination such as the filtration opening size (FOS) is used to assess the geotextile's filtration behavior. Standard hydrodynamic methods use a soil with a uniformity coefficient (Cu) greater than 6, with the coarser particle size value at least twice the estimated FOS value, and with a d¹⁰ four times smaller than the FOS value. The filtration opening size determination, using such a soil, is greatly influenced by the size of the coarser particles and by their fraction. Pore size has been overestimated because of these factors and because of the curve continuity. The soil nature of the gradation curve and the quantity of soil used in the test may distort pore size determination, hide some phenomena, and lead to errors in interpretation.

The geotextile structure can be characterized by the mass per unit area, thickness, density of fibers, fiber diameter, porosity, and fabrication process.

This report includes the first results of a laboratory study performed at the Polytechnical School of Montreal, the University of Liège, the University of Grenoble, CEMAGREF (Antony, France), ENEL (Milano, Italy) and the Ontario Ministry of Transports (Toronto, Canada) on the interaction between geotextile structure and filtration opening size (FOS).