Large-scale drainage behaviour of composite geotextile and geogrid in residual soil

The reinforcing capability of high strength geotextile and geogrid in resid ual soil has been studied recently, using pullout tests and wide width tens ile tests. However, the drainage behaviour of these geosynthetics products in reinforcement applications has not been well addressed so far. This pape r presents experimental evaluation of the drainage performance of a high st rength composite permeable geotextile and a HDPE geogrid in a poorly draini ng Singapore residual soil. The drainage behaviour of these geosynthetics p roducts embedded in poorly draining Singapore residual soil was evaluated w ith large-scale drainage behaviour tests. Pore pressure transducers were in stalled at strategic locations in the soil mass to evaluate the development and dissipation of excess pore pressure. The test results showed that with the placement of permeable geosynthetics materials, the rate of pore press ure dissipation was faster than without any geosynthetics product or with a non-permeable geosynthetics product. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All ri ghts reserved.