What is the difference between geotextile and geomembrane? This article briefly describes the difference between geotextiles and geomembranes, and suggests that the combination of the two works better!

Let’s dive right in now, and you can click on the question that interest you, 

Geotextile

1 What is geotextile?

The material of geotextile is non-woven fabric, mainly divided into spun geotextile and non-woven geotextile, with filtration, drainage, isolation, reinforcement, seepage control, protection, the advantages of geotextile is lightweight, tensile strength, good permeability, good insulation, frost resistance, etc., the main role is to strengthen the foundation.

Geotextiles are mainly made of filament or short filament through different mechanical equipment and processes made of mesh, and then through needle punching or weaving and other processes to let different fibers interweave together, intertwined so that the woven fabric specifications, so that the fabric is soft, plump, thick, hard, to achieve different thickness to meet the requirements of each project material use.

In addition, geotextiles have a good fabric gap and therefore have good adhesion ability. Because of the softness of the fiber, geotextile has a certain tear-resistance and also has good resistance to deformation and planar drainage. The gap on the surface can increase the friction coefficient to increase the adhesion ability of soil particles, prevent the loss of particles when fine particles pass through and at the same time can eliminate excess water, and also has good protection ability. It is a widely used geosynthetic material, which is made of permeable geosynthetic material by needling or weaving synthetic fibers, generally made into the cloth with a width of 4-6 meters and a length of 50-100 meters.

Geotextile

2 What is geomembrane?

Geomembranes are made of high-density polyethylene material, mainly using plastic film as an impermeable substrate with relatively strong extensibility and resistance to deformation. They are mainly used in the field of engineering construction for seepage control, isolation, enhancement, crack prevention, reinforcement and other projects with seepage control requirements. They are a molecular chemical flexible material with small specific gravity, strong extensibility, ability to adapt to deformation, low temperature resistance and good anti-freezing performance. Their main working principle is to isolate the stone dam leakage channel by the impermeability of plastic film, and to bear the water pressure and adapt to the dam deformation by its tensile strength and extensibility.

Geotextile

3 Combined use of geotextiles and geomembranes

Geotextiles and geomembranes can be used separately or compounded together to bring out their respective advantages. Geomembrane is mainly made of plastic film as seepage control substrate, and after becoming geotechnical seepage control material by compounding with nonwoven fabric, it can not only improve the tensile strength and puncture resistance but also improve the friction coefficient of contact surface because of the rough surface of nonwoven geotextile, which is more conducive to the stability of composite geomembrane At the same time, the combination of geotextile and nonwoven fabric also has strong anti-bacterial and anti-corrosion, not afraid of acid, alkali and salt corrosion.