Assessments of long-term filtration performance of degradable prefabricated geotextile drains

A smart geotextile for hydraulic end-use applications, such as filtration and drainage, has been manufactured. For filtration applications, biodegradable prefabricated vertical drains (PVDs) were fabricated using special conditioned geotextile filter and plastic cores to improve their degradability. Aliphatic polyester-based PVDs showed higher tensile strengths than starch-based PVDs. Biodegradable PVDs showed lower hydraulic properties than normal PVDs, however, the magnitude of the difference was not large. In terms of their chemical resistance and biodegradation, the biodegradable PVDs were better than typical PVDs. Compared to geonet composites, smart geotextiles could be the ideal geosynthetics for drainage applications on side sloping areas and for the protection of geomembranes in waste landfills.