Abstract
In order to investigate the characteristics of gravity drainage for geotextile, small-scale model tests for the geotextile chimney drain of earth dam which is a typical type of gravity drainage were carried out using 15 kinds of nonwoven and composite geotextiles. According to the results of this study, the drainage discharge of geotexgile drain generally increases with exponential function as hydraulic head increases and the increasing rate is greater in the coarser soil of dam material. It has a trend to increase when the construction slope of geotextile drain is steeper and the number of layers of geotextile is more. The relationship between the transmissivity of geotextile and the drainage discharge has positive correlation and the rate of increase is greater in the coarser soil. The geotextile products must be carefully selected in consideration of transmissivity of geotextile when the soil to be drained is coarser and the seepage flow is relatively high. Most of staple fiber nonwoven geotextile used in this study are found to be appropriate for drainage purpose. Among them, the composite geotextile the type of which geotextile is evaluated to be the most excellent material. But the geotextile of low permeability such as filament thermal bonded and filament spunbonded nowovens closely examined their transmissivity especially to be used for drainage function.
