Numerical and field test verifications for the deformation behavior of geotextile tubes considering 1D and areal strain

Two-dimensional analytical and numerical solutions for determining the geometric dimensions and stresses of geotextile tubes are reviewed. Conventional one-dimensional (1D) approximation of the average drop in height (consolidated height) of geotextile tubes was also reviewed in this study. Densification modeling of the fill material based on areal-strain analysis is introduced. Leshchinky et al.'s approximation method considers only the vertical movement of the densifying material in the analysis. The areal-strain method offers an alternative analysis approach wherein both the vertical and lateral movements of the densifying fill material are considered. The geotextile tube is assumed to be resting on a rigid horizontal foundation and analyses for both filling and densified stages treats the internal material as liquid in order to apply normal pressure to the tube. Parametric cases for the densification of geotextile tube fill are presented. Results show that the degree of tube height reduction decreases as the density of the slurry fill is increased. Large-scale tests have been conducted on composite geotextile tubes made of outer woven and inner non-woven polyester (PET) material. The tubes were 10 m and 25 m long having theoretical diameters of 3.0 m and 5.0 m, respectively. The validity of the solution for densification analysis was demonstrated by comparing the numerical results to those of the field test. The agreement between the numerical results and field measurement data is fairly acceptable.