Abstract

GARCIA-ARISTIZABAL, Edwin Fabián; VEGA-POSADA, Carlos Alberto  and  GALLEGO-HERNANDEZ, Alba Nury. Experimental study of water infiltration on an unsaturated soil-geosynthetic system. Rev.fac.ing.univ. Antioquia [online]. 2016, n.78, pp.105-111. ISSN 0120-6230.  https://doi.org/10.17533/udea.redin.n78a15.

This investigation presents experimental results from soil-geosynthetic column tests constructed to study the drainage capability of geosynthetics installed within an unsaturated soil and subjected to a water infiltration process. Two different types of permeable geosynthetics were tested; namely, non-woven geotextile and woven non-woven geocomposite. The infiltration process was monitored using negative/positive pore water pressure and volumetric water content transducers placed above and below the geosynthetic. The results showed that the geosynthetics behaved as an impermeable layer until the surrounding soil was nearly saturated. The geosynthetics started draining water laterally only when the pore water pressure within the soil above it was positive or negative but close to zero. This study intends to provide some insights into the physics of soil-geosynthetics performance, and to complement the available technical data used to conduct numerical simulations of complex soil-structures subjected to water infiltration processes.

Keywords : Infiltration; soil-geosynthetic; column-test; unsaturated soil; experimental study.

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