Recent developments in design criteria for granular and geotextile filters

Abstract

Granular and geotextile filters are commonly provided in several hydrological infrastructures to limit soil erosion and allow unimpeded water seepage. The success of a filter depends on forming a bridging structure, which is governed by the grain size distribution of soil and the constriction size distribution of filter. Currently, the retention requirement is satisfied considering representative grain and opening size, whereas the hydraulic conductivity requirement is satisfied considering empirical factors for avoiding excessive clogging. In this paper, the design criteria for granular and geotextile filters are reviewed, and improved design criteria are presented. A probabilistic retention criterion is developed, considering the grain size and constriction size as random variables. The influence of filter thickness is incorporated into the criterion by considering the number of constrictions in a filtration path. A hydraulic conductivity criterion is developed theoretically based on governing flow equations and the expected partial clogging of geotextiles. The limit states for the developed criteria are evaluated based on the wide range of experimental data. The developed design criteria are applicable to granular and nonwoven geotextiles, which offers an improvement in design compared to the existing criteria in practice.