5 Different Uses of Popular woven geotextile fabric and Nonwoven Geotextile fabric

woven geotextiles and nonwoven geotextiles helps users better choose the right material. Geotextiles are high-performance materials used in civil engineering. According to different production processes and characteristics, they are mainly divided into woven geotextiles and nonwoven geotextiles. The two have their own characteristics in material, structure, function and use, and are suitable for different engineering needs.

What is woven geotextile?

Woven geotextile fabric is a geotextile material made of high-strength fibers through a weaving process. It has a regular mesh structure and is mainly made of polypropylene (PP) or polyester (PET) fibers.

Features

• High strength and low elongation: Woven geotextiles have high tensile strength and low elongation, suitable for bearing large mechanical loads.
• Good filtration and separation performance: The woven structure can effectively separate soils of different particle sizes while allowing water to pass through.
• Durability: Strong resistance to UV, chemical corrosion and microbial erosion, suitable for long-term use.
• Strong rigidity: Compared with non-woven geotextiles, woven geotextiles are less flexible and more suitable for scenarios requiring structural support.

What is nonwoven geotextile?

Nonwoven geotextile fabric is a geotextile made of polypropylene (PP) or polyester (PET) fibers through needle punching or hot bonding process. Its fibers are randomly distributed in a nonwoven structure.

Features

• High water permeability: The fiber gaps of non-woven geotextiles are large, with good water permeability, and can quickly drain water.
• Strong flexibility: The soft structure enables it to fit the terrain closely, suitable for complex engineering needs.
• Moderate strength: Compared with woven geotextiles, non-woven geotextiles have lower tensile strength, but better ductility and adaptability.
• Versatility: Non-woven geotextiles have good filtering, drainage, protection and isolation functions.

Roadbed reinforcement and stability enhancement

• Features of woven geotextiles: Made of high-strength fibers through a weaving process, it has high tensile strength and low elongation.
  It can effectively disperse the load and prevent uneven settlement of the roadbed.
  Use: Roadbeds that require high-strength reinforcement, such as highways, railways and airport runways, and soft soil roadbeds, prevent foundation instability by enhancing the integrity of the soil. Provide long-term support capacity and are suitable for heavy-load traffic environments.
• Features of non-woven geotextiles: Polyester or polypropylene fibers are made through needle punching or hot bonding processes, have good flexibility and permeability, low strength, but can adapt well to the deformation of the foundation.
• Use: Suitable for roadbed reinforcement of light traffic or rural roads, used as a separator in the drainage system to prevent soil particles from entering the drainage pipe, and provide basic support in low-load roadbeds.

Drainage and filtration function

• Features of woven geotextiles: low water permeability, but good filtration effect to maintain the integrity of the soil in an environment with strong water flow.
  Uses: used as filter materials in water conservancy projects such as dams and slope protection to prevent soil loss, in rivers and channel projects, to provide effective separation and filtration functions, and in landfills as a filter layer for leachate.
• Features of non-woven geotextiles: high water permeability, can quickly drain accumulated water, and block soil particles at the same time.
  Good flexibility, suitable for complex terrain.
  Uses: drainage pipes and seepage systems, to prevent blockage and keep drainage unobstructed, underground drainage systems, waterproof drainage projects such as tunnels, subways and underground parking lots.

Special engineering applications

• Features of woven geotextiles: High strength and low elongation enable them to adapt to high loads and harsh environments.
  High durability, suitable for long-term projects.
  Uses: Stability reinforcement of mine tailings dams to prevent landslides and silt loss, large-scale infrastructure construction, such as bridges and docks, used as reinforcement materials, special projects in extreme environments, such as frozen soil protection in cold areas.
• Features of non-woven geotextiles: Good flexibility, able to adapt to complex engineering needs, suitable for short-term and medium-term engineering use.
  Uses: Waterproof layer of tunnel and subway projects, used as covering material in agriculture and gardening to inhibit weed growth, used as basic separation material in landscape engineering.

Seepage prevention and isolation function

• Features of woven geotextiles: Seepage prevention function, but can effectively isolate materials of different particle sizes, and its high strength characteristics enable it to withstand large mechanical loads.
• Uses: Base isolation of roads and railways to prevent soil and gravel from mixing, dams and slope protection, used as an isolation layer between soil and water flow, port and dock projects, providing material separation and stabilization functions.
• Features of non-woven geotextiles: Seepage prevention function, especially when used in combination with geomembranes,Good flexibility, can adapt to complex terrain.
• Uses: Seepage prevention projects in landfills and mines, combined with geomembranes to form an anti-seepage system, as an isolation layer in water conservancy projects to prevent soil and water mixing, and waterproof isolation layer for underground buildings.

Soil erosion protection

• Features of woven geotextiles: tight structure, long-term erosion resistance, excellent UV and chemical resistance, suitable for exposed environments.
  Uses: Protection of steep slopes and slopes to prevent soil loss caused by rainwater erosion, coastal and river embankments, long-term erosion protection, windy and sandy areas to prevent soil flow and dune migration.
• Features of non-woven geotextiles: strong flexibility, can fit closely to the surface, relatively low durability, suitable for short-term projects.
  Uses: turf planting and slope greening, fix seeds and prevent surface soil loss, temporary projects, slope protection of reservoirs and small rivers.

Comparison of Woven Geotextile and Non-Woven Geotextile in Key Applications