Geotextiles can be classified into different types based on their functional applications, including drainage and filtration geotextiles, wrapping geotextiles, separation geotextiles, and reinforcement geotextiles, among others.
① Drainage and Filtration Geotextiles:
These geotextiles allow the vertical passage of liquids and gases while preventing the loss of soil skeleton particles subjected to seepage forces. Some geotextiles also serve as horizontal drainage channels. Drainage and filtration geotextiles are primarily used in engineering applications such as filter layers behind slope protection, retaining walls, or barrier walls, as well as in drainage blind ditches and soft foundation treatments. They function as geosynthetic filter layers, bagged sand-gravel filter layers, soft permeable pipes, plastic drainage strips, outer wrapping materials for bagged sand wells, or composite geomembranes.
② Wrapping Geotextiles:
These geotextiles are used to wrap loose soil, sand, or gravel or to act as carriers for concrete or mortar, forming blocks with specific volumes and shapes for applications such as slope protection and erosion control. Wrapping geotextile products mainly include geotextile bags, geotextile membrane bags, and geotextile tubular bags. The geotextiles used in bagged sand-gravel filter layers and bagged sand wells also serve a wrapping function.
③ Separation Geotextiles:
These geotextiles are laid between different media to prevent the mixing of adjacent materials. Separation geotextiles are primarily used to isolate fill materials of different particle sizes in embankments or to prevent clogging of upper drainage layers when laid on soft soil surfaces.
④ Reinforcement Geotextiles:
These geotextiles, which possess certain tensile strength, are embedded within soil masses to enhance soil strength and stability and restrict soil displacement through interaction at the soil-geotextile interface. Reinforcement geotextiles are mainly used in reinforced soil structures, reinforced cushion layers in soft foundation treatments, and other engineering applications. They can also be combined with geomembranes to form reinforced composite geomembranes.
