STUDY OF INTERFACIAL FRICTION

BETWEEN GEOSYNTHETICS WITH BLACK

COTTON SOIL AND GEOSYNTHETIC
MATERIALS
Under the guidance of

Dr. P Hari Krishna

Associate Professor
Submitted By

Naga Ramesh K
Lohit Varma P
Esmirna Chambal

(111124)
(111141)
(111116)

Department of Civil Engineering

National Institute of Technology-Warangal

content
INTRODUCTION
GeoSynthetics
Literature Review
Aim and Objective

EXPERIMENTAL STUDY
REFERRENCES

INTRODUCTION:
The modern reinforced soil technology was
developed in France by H.Vidal in the mid 1960s.
An internally stabilized system such as a
reinforced soil structure or slope involves
structural elements (i.e. reinforcement) installed
within a fill mass and extending beyond the
potential failure plane. The function of the
reinforcement is to interact with the fill to absorb
the stresses and strains which would otherwise
cause the unreinforced fill to fail. The stability of
reinforced fill relies upon the mechanism of load
transfer between the fill material and the
reinforcement. During the last few years various
testing methods have been developed to provide
the necessary engineering design information

 Geosynthetics are generally polymeric products

used to solve civil engineering problems. This
includes eight main product categories:
geotextiles, geogrids, geonets, geomembranes,
geosynthetic clay liners, geofoam, geocells and
geocomposites. The polymeric nature of the
products makes them suitable for use in the
ground where high levels of durability are
required.

Geotextile
s

Geotextiles form one of the two

largest groups of geosynthetics.

They are indeed textiles in the

traditional sense, but they consist of
synthetic fibers rather than natural
ones such as cotton, wool, or silk.
Thus bio degradation and subsequent
short lifetime is not a problem.
It performs at least one of four
discrete functions: separation,
reinforcement, filtration, and/or
drainage.

Geomembra
ne:

Geomembranes represent the other

largest group of geosynthetics
The materials themselves are relatively
thin, impervious sheets of polymeric
material used primarily for linings and
covers of liquids- or solid-storage facilities.
This includes all types of landfills, surface
impoundments, canals, and other
containment facilities
The range of applications, however, is
great, and in addition to the environmental
area, applications are rapidly growing in
geotechnical, transportation, hydraulic,
and private development engineering
(such as aquaculture, agriculture, heap
leach mining, etc.).

Type of
Geosynthetic
(GS)

Separation

Geotextile
(GT)
Geogrid (GG)

Reinforcemen
t

Filtration

Drainage

Containment

Geonet (GN)
or Geospacer
(GR)

Geomembran
e (GM)

Geosynthetic
Clay Liner
(GCL)

Geofoam (GF)

Geocells (GL)

Geocomposit
e (GC)

Literature Review:
Many researchers have investigated the
influence of several parameters on the
frictional behaviour of the soil geosynthetic
interface. Parameters such as moisture
content, soil type, geosynthetic geometry and
stiffness, confining stress and soil density have
been
the
principal
ones
under
their
investigations.

 Rowe et al. (1985) conducted both Direct Shear

and Pullout tests in conventional granular fill and
saw dust fill in order to determine the interface
strength properties between these kinds of soils
and the type of geosynthetics they used. For
woven and nonwoven geotextiles, the interface
friction angle () obtained in both direct shear and
pullout tests was the same. On the opposite, for
the geogrid Tensar SR2 the interface friction
angle () obtained from the direct shear test was
almost the same as that of the soil alone, and the
interface friction angle obtained from pullout tests
was much lower.

 Lopes (2002) stated that the principal

parameters that affect the soil - geosynthetics
interaction properties are :
Interaction mechanism between soil and
geosynthetics (direct shear or pull-out mode).
Physical and mechanical properties of soil (density,
grain shape and size, grain size distribution, water
content).
Mechanical properties (tensile strength at ultimate
and at 5% strain), shape and geometry of
geosynthetics.

 Murali Krishna et.al, (2011)

conducted
Direct Shear test and Pullout tests for finding
soil-geosynthetics interaction properties for
different types of soil (sand, red soil and black
silty soil) and observed that type of soil
significantly affects the interaction response and
is different in different mechanism (shearing and
pull out).From the test results it is noted that red
soil-composite geotextile showed high peak
shear stress than black silty soil-composite
geotextile where as black silty soil composite
geotextile exhibited high pullout stress.

 Madhavi Latha Gali et.al, (2008) has

reported that the improvement in interfacial
frictional strength due to geocells is high for
geocells made of geogrids having smaller
aperture openings.
Md. Bellal Hossain et.al, (2012) based on the
results obtained in direct shear test on
geosynthetic interfaces with different type of
soils concluded that, the relationship between
shear stress () and normal stress (n) is non
linear and a simplified nonlinear equa- tion has
been
proposed
for
the
soil-geosynthetic
interface shear strength which was in good

 Eric J. Triplett et.al, (2001) did a study of

interface shear strength between smooth and
textured high density polyethylene (HDPE)
geomembranes (GMs) and a woven/non woven
needle-punched geosynthetic clay liner and
reported that the failure surface was located at the
GM/GCL interface for all tests conducted,
corresponding to a normal stress range of 1-486
kPa.
It was observed that no internal GCL failures were
observed.
Also long periods of hydration and very slow
shearing rates are probably not needed for

Applications:
To stabilize the slopes and surface of the landfills.
To stabilize slopes on the steep curves on
mountains where there is a chance of land slides.
Pavement constructions to stabilize the loose soil.
To rehabilitate leakage in dams.
Behind tunnel linings.
Pond liners.

Need for study and Aim of Project:

Since attaining a stable slope requires the
interfacial properties between geosynthetics
and soil , direct shear tests will be conducted
on different soils and geosynthetic materials.
Collection of soil sample and geosynthetic
materials.
Evaluation of index properties of soil.
Study the tensile strength of geosynthetic
materials.
Evaluation of interfacial friction between
different geosynthetic materials and soil
sample.
Study the effect of temperature and sunlight

Details of the tests to be conducted:

Large Direct Shear test on Black Cotton soil and
Geosynthetic combinations as per IS 2720-13.
Tests to find out physical characteristics of the Black
Cotton soil including density, grain size distribution
and water content test.
To find the tensile strength of various geosynthetics
under various conditions such as exposure to
sunlight, under high temperatures and normal
conditions.

ELECTRO MECHANICAL UNIVERSAL TESTING MACHIN

This UTM has been used

to find out the tensile
strength of various
geosynthetic materials.
The following tests can
be done using this:
Compression Test
Grab Test
Trapezoidal Tearing
Strength
Puncture Test
Tensile strength test

Tensile strenght test Results

Geotextile

Geogrid

Geogrid 2

Smooth Geomembrane

Rough Geomembrane

Large Direct Shear apparatus

Working on
Large
direct
Shear.

C
FrictionAn
(kpa) gle
(in
degrees)
Clay

110

15

geotextile

104

21

Smooth
geomembrane

15

10

Textured
Geomembrane

150

22

1 bay geogrid

159

25

2 bay geogrid

171

27

Conclusions
We can clearly notice the change in the properties of the
geosynthetics due the effect of temperature change, also due
to the effect of sun when compared with the normal conditions.
The effect due to sunlight is more prominent than the rise in
temperature.
From the above conducted experiments we found that Geogrid
gives more factor of safety.

References
1. Awdhesh K. C., A. Murali Krishna (2011) soil-geosynthetics
interaction properties for different types of soil.
2. By Eric J. Triplett and Patrick J. Fox (2001) shear strength of
hdpe geomembrane/geosynthetic clay liner interfaces.
3. Md. Bellal Hossain, Md. Zakaria Hossain (2012) Interaction
Properties of Geosynthetic with Different Backfill Soils.