| |MARCH 20229They also offer exclusive benefits that can considerably evolve the engineering methods towards application-specific problems. Irrefutably, geosynthetics will play an integral role in achieving the aggressive infrastructure timelines and budget over the coming years in the nation. While geosynthetics render some note-worthy benefits in terms of lower maintenance requirements, faster speed of construction, and environmental conservation, their adoption in India has been slow and one of the major reasons for this is low awareness. Based on their physical characteristics and applications, they are further classified into Geotextiles, Geocomposites, Geogrids, Geomembranes, Geocells, Geofoams, and more. These can be used for: · Reinforcement - Geosynthetics such as geostrip, geogrid, woven geotextile ameliorates the overall strength of the soil. In the case of embankments build over soft soils, they can also help in preventing the lateral spreading of the foundation, while increasing the confinement and thus, improve the distribution of vertical stresses of the sub-grade. These combined benefits can enhance the load-carrying capacity of the road and railway tracks by over 50 percent. · Stabilization - Geotextiles and Geogrids are routinely used to stabilize weak soils during construction. · Drainage - This function ensures adequate liquid flow without soil loss. Drainage geocomposites show excellent results in plane drainage capacity and resistance to high loads which make them suitable for applications such as drainage behind retaining walls, drainage layer under roads and railways embankments and drainage trenches. · Filtration - The geotextile function of filtration involves the movement of liquid through the geotextile itself across its manufactured plane. At the same time, the geotextile most serve the purpose of retaining the soil on its upstream side. Geotextiles have adequate permeability with an open fabric structure and soil retention with a tight fabric structure. · Containment - The application refers to any usage that includes geosynthetics as a barrier to liquid or gas materials. They are significantly used in wastewater management, heap leach mining liners, secondary tank containment, and landfill liners. Geomembranes, clay liners, geocomposite, are the most common geosynthetics used for containment. Geomembranes or geosynthetic clay liners guard against seepage loss, improves the flow of fluids, prevents infiltration, protects groundwater, isolates contaminated soils, and others.· Erosion control - Geosynthetics can protect the soil against raindrops and water runoff by keeping in place soil particles; moreover, they can help to propagate the vegetation and to increase by several times the shear resistance of the vegetation roots system. Geosynthetics can be used on soil slopes, along the banks of canals and river courses. Different geosynthetic materials such as geomats, geocells are effective in controlling erosion.With innumerable benefits, geosynthetics are certainly paving the way for improved infrastructure around the world. They cover a wide range of functions from containment to drainage and much more in between. Industry experts have revealed that the road sector constitutes the maximum share in using geosynthetics in the country, i.e., nearly about 40 percent. The transportation sector is certainly the most lucrative area for the Indian geotextile business because of its direct applicability and the vast scale of projects. Geotextiles are beneficial in separating different layers of sand, bitumen, and aggregate and further help in the construction of underpasses, bridges, flyovers, embankments, culverts, and others. The application of geosynthetics in the transport sector has also witnessed a significant increase, as it enhances the strength and stability of the underlying soil in roadways and railway tracks. Upcoming metro rail, bullet train, and high-speed train projects in the country are envisaged to further rapidly, fuel the demand for geosynthetics. The use of non-woven geotextiles and geomembranes have been extensively recommended for developing landfill sites for efficiently managing solid waste. Besides, geosynthetics are also widely used in the construction of dams and embankment canals, irrigation, drainage works, solid waste management, and soil erosion prevention in riverbanks and coastal areas. Unequivocally, geosynthetics offer a gamut of advantages that are bound to grow significantly due to their efficiency and sustainability. Irrefutably,geosynthetics will play an integral role in achieving the aggressive infrastructure timelines and budget over the coming years in the nation
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