What is a geocomposite: definition, types, uses and materials
Geocomposites is defined as a combination of two or more geosynthetic products, used for specific applications in civil engineering. Geocomposites can be made by pairing products such as geonets, geomembranes, geogrids, or geotextiles. They are designed to solve specific geotechnical challenges with soil terrains, or topographical situations. For example, a combination of a geonet and geotextile at Strata Geosystems is manufactured at our plants. This particular product called StrataDrain is a composite product used for landfill, mining, and civil works. It is a drainage composite comprised of HDPE geonet core laminated with non-woven geotextiles, on one or both sides.
Geocomposites serve four key uses: separation, drainage, reinforcement, and filtration. Geocomposites can be used either horizontally, or vertically, based on the application type. The most common variant is geonets bonded with geotextiles. When used horizontally, they are a popular choice for leachate collection in landfills, or for reinforcement, and separation on paved highways.
This category of geocomposite is preferred in embankments constructed over soft soils where water drainage is an important consideration because of its strong planar drainage capability. When added as a layer between the subsoil and subgrade, this layer of geocomposite serves as both a separator and drainage system, preventing the subgrade from becoming contaminated with fine-grained subsoil. It also reduces excess pore water pressure, improving the embankment’s stability, and creates an even distribution of load over the subsoil. Thanks to its thickness, it also mitigates the need for sand which is helpful in geographies where the local sand may be suboptimal in quality, by working as a sandwich layer. In other instances such as slope wall reinforcement, due to its ability to drain water, it can aid with draining water away from the wall, when placed behind a retention wall, vertically as a drainage layer so that water is flowing towards or away from the wall.
