Advanced high performance, intelligent and eco-friendly geotextiles

Abstract

Geotextiles are used for various traditional civil engineering applications, including reinforcement, filtration, separation, drainage, and sealing. With advancements in sensor technology, advanced geotextiles are developed using fibre optic sensors, thereby acting as smart materials that respond to changes in external conditions. Fibre optic-based sensors can monitor changes in temperature, pore pressure, humidity, and physical and chemical changes on the geotechnical structure, and repairs can be done earlier, which results in cost savings as well as saving lives. Intelligent geotextiles can be utilized simultaneously as sensors and reinforcement applications but the advantages of these sensors have to be set against the fact that they are expensive, and are not always reliable in that results can be influenced by moisture or electromagnetic interference. Natural fibre-based geotextiles are environmentally-friendly materials, but their performance can be further improved by various chemical modifications. One of the issues with such chemical treatments is their adverse environmental impact. This issue of Textile Progress discusses high-performance geotextiles, intelligent geotextiles, and natural fibre-based geotextiles and their modifications. Some of the important functional properties of geotextiles are discussed along with their applications in soil conservation, reinforcement, filtration, separation, and drainage. The environmental impacts of geotextiles and of micro- and nano-plastics from the geotextiles are also discussed.