Monitoring of the Variation in Pore Sizes of Woven Geotextiles with Uniaxial Tensile Strain

Abstract

Characteristic pore-opening size O95 or O90 has been widely used in the filter design of woven geotextiles. These manufactured products have different pore size proportions of large pore diameters, medium pore diameters, and small pore diameters, respectively. Therefore, uncertainties still exist regarding the prediction of geotextile pore diameter variations under the uniaxial tensile strain. This paper investigates the variations in five characteristic pore-opening sizes O95, O80, O50, O30, and O10, with uniaxial tensile strain by using the image analysis method. The large pore diameters, medium pore diameters, and small pore diameters show different variation behaviors as the uniaxial tensile strain increases. Fifteen specific pores are selected and then their pore diameter variations are monitored under each tensile strain of 1%. The colorful pore size distribution diagram is a visual way to identify the variation of pores arranged in the tension direction (warp direction) and the direction perpendicular to tensile loads (weft direction). The various pore diameters are proved to agree well with the bell-shaped Gaussian distribution. The results exhibit an accurate prediction of the variation in large pore sizes, medium pore sizes, and small pore sizes, respectively, for all tested woven geotextiles with uniaxial tensile strain.