Laboratory study on the consolidation settlement of clay-filled geotextile tube and bags

Abstract

One of the newer families of geosynthetic product is geotextile tube, container and bag which could be effectively used in the containment of dredged material or clayey soils. In the recent decade, geotextile tube, container and bag with various dimension and shape are widely applied for offshore protection and land reclamation project. From geotechnical engineering point of view, the estimation of the settlement and the prediction of consolidation process of clay-filled geotextile bag would be an important aspect in the design of the geotextile containment system. The application of geotextile tubes and bags often involves the stacking of these units in multiple layers. Two critical issues in its design are the consolidation settlement of the bags and tubes; and the strain development of the geotextile. In order to study the consolidation behavior of the geotextile-clay system, modified triaxial tests have been conducted in the National University of Singapore. The modeled geotextile tubes filled with clay have been subjected to different confining pressure and the rate of consolidation has been monitored and compared with established consolidation theory. For the strain development of the geotextile subjected to loading pressure arising from the stacking of geotextile bags, laboratory tests were conducted to evaluate the strain development in scaled-geotextile bags. These geotextile bags were filled with soft slurry clay and submerged in water; and have been loaded using vertical pressure. The strain development of the geotextile and the rate of settlement of the geotextile bags were monitored. This paper presents the findings and the results of the above mentioned laboratory tests and the comparison with existing consolidation theories.