Evaluation of the retention of slurry sediments using geotubes

Woven geotextiles are often used in containment and filtration applications to filter, retain, and dewater fine sediments. For most engineering applications, geotextiles must be designed to prevent the migration of fines while at the same time be permeable enough to allow water to pass, without clogging. Retention criteria are often based on the hydraulic properties of the geotextile, in particular its characteristic opening size. Although woven geotextiles are commonly used in many civil and environmental applications, limited work has been done to characterize their hydraulic properties and relate them to their retention behaviour. This paper presents the results of a systematic evaluation of the hydraulic properties of four different woven geotextiles commonly used in dewatering and filtration applications. The characteristic pore openings of the woven geotextiles are evaluated using dry sieving (AOS), hydrodynamic sieving (FOS), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results of these evaluations are used to evaluate the retention performance of the woven geotextiles. Two types of tests, pressure filtration and cyclic hydrodynamic sieving, are performed to evaluate the soil retention/passing of slurry sediments.