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The Geosynthetics for Sustainable Construction of Infrastructure Projects

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Abstract

The introduction of geosynthetics has drastically changed the manner of geotechnical practice. The challenges posed by the uncertainty of soil properties are easily overcome by the intelligent use of geosynthetics. The geosynthetics are applied practically in all areas of geotechnical engineering including the construction of steep slopes, retaining walls, ground improvement systems, landfills, drainage and filtration control around geotechnical structures, erosion control, etc. This lecture will briefly describe the history of geosynthetics and their applications to different infrastructure construction projects. The aspects of environmental sustainability that can be achieved through the use of geosynthetics are briefly brought out towards the end of the lecture.

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Abbreviations

σ3, σ1 :

Minor and major principal stresses

σ1u, σ1R :

Major principal stresses in unreinforced and reinforced soil samples

Ka :

Rankine’s active earth pressure coefficient

Kp :

Rankine’s passive earth pressure coefficient

\(\bar{c}\) :

Apparent cohesive strength of soil

ϕ:

Friction angle of soil

ϕu, ϕR :

Friction angles of unreinforced and reinforced soils

Δσ1 :

Increase in major principal stress

Sv, Sh :

Vertical and horizontal spacing of reinforcement layers

P:

Force in the reinforcement layer

σv :

Normal pressure on the interface

α:

Angle between horizontal and reinforcement layer

εa :

Axial strain

εc :

Circumferential strain

M:

secant modulus of geosynthetic

p:

Mean normal stress = (σ1 + σ3)/2

q:

Shear stress = (σ1 − σ3)/2

H :

Height of embankment

a :

Diameter of pile

\(\bar{x}\) :

Depth of neutral plane below ground surface

ℓcrit :

Critical length of the floating pile

Cc :

Arching coefficient

FS:

Factor of safety against slip circle failure

ESC:

Encased stone column

OSC:

Ordinary stone column

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Acknowledgements

Firstly, I would like to thank the Indian Geotechnical Society for giving me this prestigious opportunity to address the august gathering of geotechnical engineers from India and abroad. My sincere thanks are due to IIT Madras for providing excellent ambience and nurturing every step taken in search of answers to different questions in geotechnical engineering. My special thanks to all my faculty colleagues in geotechnical engineering at IIT Madras for their enthusiastic discussions, research collaborations and helpful suggestions. Especially, I would like to place on record my appreciation to Prof. N.R. Krishnaswamy who provided full support in initiating my teaching and research career at IIT Madras. Most of all, my thanks are to all my former doctoral students, Unnikrishnan, Madhavi Latha, Jeyalakshmi, Purnanandam, Sujit Kumar Dash, Sajna, Murugesan, Karthigeyan, Ranga Swamy, Anjana Bhasi, Ganesh, Sridhar and Sunil Ranjan Mohapatra. Thanks are also due to the current doctoral students Murthy, Nithin, Muneeb, Reshma, Chaitanya, Jayapal, Dinesh, Shyamala, Gupta, Kiran and Prabhavathy. Each of them was unique who brought new ideas and fresh energy with each one of them. That made the teaching and research work at IIT Madras exciting and invigorating. The research work reported here could not have been carried out without the financial support from several public and private sponsoring agencies including Department of Science and Technology, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Netlon India Ltd, Garware Wall Ropes Ltd, Techfab (India), Strata Geosystems (India) Ltd, Maccaferri Environmental Solutions Pvt. Ltd India, PRS Mediterranean Ltd. Thanks are due to my family members for their patience, understanding and support to my academic pursuits. Finally, thanks are due to the Almighty Avatar Meher Baba.

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  1. Department of Civil Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology Madras, Chennai, TN, 600 036, India

    Rajagopal Karpurapu

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Karpurapu, R. The Geosynthetics for Sustainable Construction of Infrastructure Projects. Indian Geotech J 47, 2–34 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40098-016-0215-5

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