Geotextile Response to Common Index Property Tests

Abstract

Pavement engineers must design for marginal materials while simultaneously minimizing construction and design costs and extending the pavement design life. The inclusion of geotextiles in pavement structures is a common method of accounting for these apparently incompatible goals. However, the attempt to provide a cost-effective design often forces engineers to design on the basis of a minimal amount of geotextile index property data. The objective of this investigation was to quantify the variability of geotextile index tests to provide engineers with a means of estimating material variability for reliability-based engineering. A wide variety of geotextiles was obtained from manufacturers to represent a broad cross section of available geotextile products. The geotextiles were subjected to a battery of index property tests. The experimental manufacturer's average roll value (MARV) was computed from the limited number of replicates in the laboratory and compared with the manufacturer's reported MARV. General conclusions regarding strength, elongation, modulus, and toughness properties of geotextiles from index tests are presented. Behavioral trends were observed for geotextile material types and manufacturing processes. The implications of the trends for design applications and product specification are noted. The intent of this paper is to improve the general practitioner's understanding of geotextile behavior and of the implications of using index properties for product specification and project design.