Mechanical damage of geotextiles induced by recycled construction and demolition waste

Abstract

Construction and demolition waste is one of the most impactful waste streams worldwide, so efforts should be made to find applications that promote its recovery. The use of recycled aggregates from construction and demolition waste as filling materials in geotechnical works, where they may come into contact with geosynthetics, is one of those applications. This work evaluates the mechanical damage induced to five geotextiles with different structures (non-woven and woven) by three recycled aggregates from construction and demolition waste. The damage suffered by the geotextiles was evaluated qualitatively by visual inspection and quantitatively by monitoring changes in their tensile and static puncture behaviour. The results showed that in some cases, the recycled aggregates from construction and demolition waste induced damage to the geotextiles, affecting their properties. The impact of the aggregates depended on (a) their particle characteristics and (b) the physical properties of the geotextiles. For both non-woven and woven geotextiles, the increase in mass per unit area and thickness resulted in better resistance to degradation. The damage caused by the recycled aggregates to 251 and 495 g/m2 non-woven geotextiles was small to negligible. Corundum (standard aggregate) had a more harmful impact on the geotextiles than the recycled aggregates.