Effect of Soil Grain Size Distribution on the Mechanical Damage of Nonwoven Geotextiles Under Repeated Loading

Abstract

Installation processes (which induce mechanical damage) may cause undesirable changes on the properties of geosynthetics, affecting their performance. This work evaluates the effect of mechanical damage on the short-term tensile behaviour of two nonwoven geotextiles (with different masses per unit area). The geotextiles were damaged in laboratory using a standardised procedure and an artificial aggregate (corundum) and eight other soils. The damage induced was characterized using wide-width tensile tests. Results showed reductions of the tensile strength of both geotextiles, which depended on the grain size distribution and uniformity of the soils and on the mass per unit area of the geotextiles. The reduction in tensile strength provoked by corundum was higher than the decreases caused by most of the other soils. The mechanical damage tests also led to a reduction of elongation at maximum load and an increase of stiffness.