INFLUENCE OF SURFACE-ROUGHNESS OF WOVEN GEOTEXTILES ON INTERFACIAL FRICTIONAL BEHAVIOR - EVALUATION THROUGH MODEL EXPERIMENTS

Geotextiles used as reinforcing elements in soil structures transfer a majority of the shear stress from the soil to the reinforcement by fr iction. The interfacing ability manifested by soil/geotextile friction al contact is thus very important in the performance of reinforced soi l structures. In this study, the interaction criteria of geotextiles w ith soil are evaluated by conducting model pull-out friction tests in a laboratory. The study includes an investigation of the influence of surface roughness of different woven geotextiles embedded in glass bea ds on interfacial friction under varying normal stresses. Pull-out fri ction tests on embossed acrylic plates are also done in the same manne r to support beads/geotextile friction test results. The surface rough ness of woven geotextiles can influence in-soil frictional behavior de pending on the relationship between soil particle size and surface asp erity of the geotextile: the closest fit of soil particles into the su rface irregularities gives the maximum frictional resistance.