Analysis of Factors Affecting Strain Distribution in Geosynthetics
Publication: Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 132, Issue 1
Abstract
Localized strains due to production defects, seams, and punctured zones significantly affect mechanical performance of geosynthetic materials. Accurate determination of localized strains becomes particularly important for quality control/quality assurance evaluation of these materials and may play a critical role in design problems. A battery of tensile tests was conducted on 12 different geosynthetics to assess the effects of seam type, puncture, and clamping techniques on strain distributions. Digital images of the geosynthetic specimens were captured during testing, and the analyses of time-lapsed images were performed using two optical flow techniques to define strain distributions within specimens as well as in the vicinity of grip locations and seam zones. The results indicated that the optical flow techniques used in this study can successfully define the distribution of strains in a geosynthetic test specimen during tensile testing. The magnitude of lateral strains was small in polypropylene wovens and geogrids, whereas it was significant in polyester wovens and nonwovens. Large strains developed in the vicinity of seams regardless of the clamping technique used. The strains at the seam zones measured with hydraulic grips were significantly higher than those measured with roller grips. Sewn geosynthetics generally experienced lower lateral strain-to-axial strain ratios. The average axial strain appears to be insensitive to puncture regardless of the type of geosynthetics considered or the clamping technique used.
Get full access to this article
View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.
Acknowledgments
The funding for this project was provided by the University of Maryland through General Research Board Award given to the third writer. Additional funding was provided by the Minta Martin Fund through the Department of Aerospace Engineering while the second writer was a post-doctoral research associate at the University of Maryland. All this support is gratefully acknowledged.
References
Allen, T. M., and Bathurst, R. J. (2002). “Soil reinforcement loads in geosynthetics walls at working stresses.” Geosynthet. Int., 9(5–6), 525–566.
(ASTM). (2001a). “Standard test method for index puncture resistance of geotextiles, geomembranes, and related products.” ASTM D 4833, West Conshohocken, Pa.
American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM). (2001b). “Standard test method for tensile properties of geotextiles by the wide-width strip method.” ASTM D 4595, West Conshohocken, Pa.
Aydilek, A. H., Guler, M., and Edil, T. B. (2004). “Use of image analysis in determination of strain distribution during geosynthetic tensile testing.” J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 18(1), 65–74.
Bais-Singh, S., and Goswami, B. C. (1996). “Deformation behavior of spun-bonded nonwovens: Measurement.” Proc., INDA-TEC 96, Crystal City, Va., 29.1–29.19.
Billard, J. W., and Wu, J. T. H. (1991). “Load test of a large scale geotextile-reinforced retaining walls.” Proc., Geosynthetics ’91, IFAI, Vol. 2, St. Paul, Minn., 537–548.
Chew, S. H., Wong, W. K., Ng, C. C., Tan, S. A., and Karunaratne, G. P. (2000). “Strain gauging geotextiles using external gauge attachment method.” Grips, clamps, clamping techniques and strain measurement for testing of geosynthetics, ASTM STP 1379, P. E. Stevenson, ed., American Society for Testing and Materials, West Conshohocken, Pa.
Edil, T. B., and Aydilek, A. H. (2001). “Geotechnics of capping very soft wastes.” Proc., 13th Int. Conf. on Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering, Vol. 3, Istanbul, Turkey, 1903–1906.
Giachetti, A. (2000). “Matching techniques to compute image motion.” Image Vis. Comput., 18, 247–260.
Gonzales, R. C., and Woods, R. E. (1992). “Digital image processing.” Addison Wesley, Boston.
Guler, M., Edil, T. B., and Bosscher, P. J. (1999). “Measurement of particle movement in granular soils using image analysis.” J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 13(2), 116–122.
Kelkar, A. D., Stevenson, P. E., Skochdopole, T. R., and Yarmolenko, S. N. (2000). “Effect of gage length and test speed on the measured tensile properties of geosynthetic reinforcements.” Grips, Clamps, Clamping Techniques, and Strain Measurement for Testing of Geosynthetics, ASTM STP 1379, P. E. Stevenson, ed., West Conshohocken, Pa., 37–46.
Koerner, R. M. (1999). Designing with geosynthetics, 4th Ed., Prentice–Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.
Lewis, J. P. (1995). “Fast template matching.” Proc., Vision Interface 95, Quebec City, Quebec, 120–123.
Liu, J., and Iskander, M. (2004). “Adaptive cross correlation for imaging displacements in soils.” J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 18(1), 46–57.
Masad, E., Somadevan, N., Bahia, H., and Kose, S. (2001). “Modeling and experimental measurements of strain distribution in asphalt mixes.” J. Transp. Eng., 127(6), 477–485.
Müller-Rochholz, J., and Recker, C. (2000). “Tensile strength and clamping of geogrids.” Grips, clamps, clamping techniques, and strain measurement for testing of geosynthetics, ASTM STP 1379,P. E. Stevenson, ed., Philadelphia, 28–36.
Papanicolaou, A. N., Diplas, P., Balakrishnan, M., and Dancey, C. L. (1999). “Computer vision technique for tracking bed load movement.” J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 13(2), 71–79.
Raschke, S. A., Hryciw, R. D., and Donohoe, G. W. (1996). “Microdeformations in sands by digital image processing and analysis.” Transportation Research Record, 1548, Transportation Research Board, Washington, D.C., 31–37.
Raymond, G. P. (1994). “Durability of geotextiles in railroad rehabilitations.” Transportation Research Board, 1439, Transportation Research Record, Washington, D.C., 12–19.
Sadek, S., Iskander, M. G., and Liu, J. (2003). “Accuracy of digital image correlation for measuring deformations in transparent media.” J. Comput. Civ. Eng., 17(2), 88–96.
Shinoda, M., and Bathurst, R. J. (2004a). “Lateral and axial deformation of PP, HDPE, and PET geogrids under tensile load.” Geotext. Geomembr., 22(4), 205–222.
Shinoda, M., and Bathurst, R. J. (2004b). “Strain measurement of geogrids using a video extensometer technique.” Geotech. Test. J., 27(5), 456–463.
Skochdopole, T. R., Cassady, L., Pihs, D., and Stevenson, P. E. (2000). “Comparative study of roller and wedge grips for tensile testing of high strength fabrics with laser extensometry.” Grips, clamps, clamping techniques, and strain measurement for testing of geosynthetics, ASTM STP 1379, P. E. Stevenson, ed., Philadelphia, 68–82.
Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering
Volume 132 • Issue 1 • January 2006
Pages: 1 - 11
Copyright
© 2006 ASCE.
History
Received: Nov 2, 2004
Accepted: Jul 18, 2005
Published online: Jan 1, 2006
Published in print: Jan 2006
Authors
Metrics & Citations
Metrics
Citations
Download citation
If you have the appropriate software installed, you can download article citation data to the citation manager of your choice. Simply select your manager software from the list below and click Download.