GEOSYNTHETICS WORLD

EuroGeo 2016 is relocated

EuroGeo6 Congress is relocated without changing the congress dates. New destination is Ljubljana, Slovenia.

PROPOSED SESSIONS FOR EuroGeo6

Agricultural Applications
Coastal Protection
Direct and Life-Cycle Cost Savings
Drainage and Filtration
Durability
Embankments on Soft Soils
Environmental Benefits
Geosynthetics as Formwork
Hydraulic Applications
Innovations and New Developments
Landfills
Lightweight Construction
Mining
Monitoring
Pavements
Physical and Numerical Models
Polymeric and Clay Geosynthetic Barriers
Properties and Testing
Quality Control and Quality Assurance
Reinforced Walls and Slopes
Roads, Railroads and Other Transportation Applications
Seismic Applications
Sustainability
Unpaved Roads
Wastewater and Fresh Water Storage

For details : http://www.eurogeo6.org/en/

5th European Geosynthetics Congress (Eurogeo5)

Valencia will be the host the 5th European Geosynthetics Congress organized by the Spanish Chapter of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS)

Professionals and students around the world will follow for the first time by ITAFEC’s online platform this European conference held in Spain.

From the 16th to 19th of September, 2012, Valencia will be the host of EuroGeo5, the 5th European Geosynthetics Congress organized by the Spanish Chapter of the International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) and with the collaboration of other institutions, both public and private. Due to the success of previous congresses, this fifth congress seeks to become an international benchmark forum on recent developments in the field of Geosynthetics. Opportunities for hands-on participation by the attending technicians with respect to the communication technology contributions are expected at this event. These sessions could be followed for the first time by the ITAFEC’s online platform (Institute of Advanced Techniques for Trade Shows, Events and Conferences, by the Spanish acronym).

The first day will be exclusively devoted to imparting a series of short courses dealing with the issues related to the knowledge of geosynthetics at a very basic level for those attendees who wish to enter the field. Finally, between the 17^th and 19^thof September, 2012, and in parallel with the scientific lectures, the educational lectures will also be held and shall be given by internationally acclaimed industry experts like Jorge Zornberg, Jean Pierre Giroud, Nathalie Touze-Foltz, Ángel Leiro y Manuel Blanco. http://www.eurogeo5.org/

The online diffusion is available in ITAFEC’s web (http://www.itafec.com/). The online inscription for all interested people who wish to assist to all programme of Auditorium 1A: the price is 250 euros (200 euros to IGS members). With this offer, the organization opens the possibility of spreading internationally and also available to the public the latest information through their social networks: Twitter (@CongresoEurogeo) and Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/Congreso-Eurogeo5/377787792233148?ref=hl).

ITAFEC, Institute of Advanced Techniques for Trade Shows, Events and Conferences, is a young initiative focused on the development of new communication technologies, primarily in online format, for use in conferences, seminars, fairs and specialized. The online betting retransmission Eurogeo5 Congress by the Spanish Chapter of International Geosynthetics Society (IGS) emphasizes its informative purpose of this sector, which takes place through actions such as conferences and symposia and technical and policy information.

Shopping mall roof garden drainage system

Laying geocomposite drainage sheets at the roof garden of a shopping mall construction. Special attention should be given to to direction of overlap considereng the backfill direction.

Announcement: LEISTER-New U.S. Headquarters and New Geo Tool

Leister Makes Firm Commitment to the US Geo Industry Swiss Manufacturer Announces New U.S. Headquarters and New Geo Tool

CHICAGO - October 17, 2011 - Leister Process Technologies, the worldwide leader in plastic welding and hot air equipment announces the opening of its expanded U.S. headquarters outside of Chicago. The new, centrally located facility quadruples Leister's capabilities in North America. Among the new services offered:

. Complete inventory of Geosynthetic tools for instant availability
. Complete spare parts inventory for overnight parts shipping
. Complete new service and repair facility
. Complete new training & demonstration space

"The expansion of Leister USA is paramount in our effort to better service the U.S. Market," stated Jerry Zybko, general manager, Leister USA. "This is the first step in our commitment to the U.S. Geo industry," reports Steve Hobbs, business development manager of Leister USA's Geosynthetics Division. "We're ramping up our customer service and support network to assure a positive experience from start to finish with Leister tools," explained Hobbs.

In addition, Leister continues to expand and refine its Geosynthetics tool offerings. The newest addition is the FUSION 3 extrusion welder with 5 mm rod feed, an inexpensive solution to medium output extrusion welding.

Stay tuned for additional news about Leister's exciting growth in the U.S. Geo market. For details, contact your Leister distributor toll-free: 855-Leister (855-534-7839); via email: geosynthetics@leisterusa.com; or visit their website: www.leisterusa.com.

About Leister Process Technologies

Leister Process Technologies (www.Leister.com) has been the worldwide leader in plastic welding and hot air equipment for more than 60 years. The Swiss manufacturer's plastic welding products are used in roof-sealing systems, floor coverings, plastic sheeting, earthworks, hydraulic and tunnel engineering, process-equipment manufacturing and vehicle repair.

Leister, with headquarters in Kägiswil, Switzerland, and sales and service centers in more than 90 countries, is ISO 9001 certified. To guarantee maximum quality, Leister develops and produces all its products and accessories (more than 10,000 items) on its own state-of-the-art manufacturing premises.

About Leister USA

Leister USA (www.LeisterUSA.com), located outside Chicago, is a business unit of Leister Process Technologies and is the primary U.S. sales and service support center for Leister's full line of products including process heat and plastic welding equipment, lasersystems and microsystems. Leister USA boasts a wide network of distribution partners across the United States and Canada.

Gabions and geotextile video

A nice video animation to show how to install gabion baskets on geotextile fabrics.

Anchorage of wickdrains

During the installation of prefabricated wick drains (Prefabricated vertical drains) for soil consolidation you need some materials under the mandrel (lance) to hold the drain in the soil when you pull the mandril back.

So you have to use anchor plates or anchor rods.

Both is OK depending on site conditions.
I find the plate more easy to use.
When the mandril is pushed in the soil the plate holds the drain in the soil.

Design of green roofs (inverted roof)

Another typical cross section of a green roof design.

Vegetation
Substrate
Drainage-, filter- and protection- layer Enkadrain
Roof sealing layer
Separating fleece
Heat insulation
Vapour barrier
House top / fabric

Erosion control- River banks

On the river banks prefilled erosion control mats could be used. The mats may be filled with bitumen bound stone chippings, gravel or etc,.

prefilled mats
Selecting wider witdhs may be better (5 m wide) (depends on the project)
vegetation can grow through
permanent protection

Some geogrid types

There are a lot of type of geogrids in the market. Depending on the production types, raw materials they may be defined in several categories.

Laser welded and polyester/polypropylene bars
Punched holes in a sheet followed by drawing or stretching (HDPE or PP)
Polyster woven geogrids with a PVC coating

Added a few photos here showing some of the geogrid types.

Traditional drainage layers

To compare with the geocomposite drainage products let's remember the traditional drainage layers :)

Traditional drainage layers are made of graded granular material

the granular filter prevents penetration of fines into the drain (Filtration)
the granular core transports the water in the plain of the filter (Drainage)

How geogrid works

Below a video simply shows how geogrid works.

Ofcourse there are a lot of things to do for design and applications but this video simply explains the supporting power of geogrids.

Take a box and fill it with gravel.
Somebody step on gravel.
The gravel does not hold the person up.
Then reinforce the gravel with geogrid layers.
Next when you remove the box, you can see that system is supported by the geogrid layers.

Soil reinforcement:Materials and design questions

- Possible materials for soil reinforcement

Most used:

STEEL
POLYMERS (PET, PP, PE-HD, AR, PVA)

- Main design questions:

What are the soil-reinforcement interaction parameters ?
What is the long term design strength (TLTDS)of the reinforcement ?

Standards for prefabricated vertical drains (wickdrains)

ISO 12958:1999    Geotextiles and geotextile-related products -- Determination of water flow capacity in their plane
ISO 10319:1993   Geotextiles -- Wide-width tensile test
ISO 11058:1999   Geotextiles and geotextile-related products -- Determination of water permeability characteristics normal to the plane, without load
ISO 12956:1999 Geotextiles and geotextile-related products -- Determination of the characteristic opening size

Below there is a typical datasheet of a wickdrain (prefabricated vertical drain) for soil consolidation. The standards used are listed.

Erosion control - Slopes

Erosion control mat on slopes:

prevent seeds washed away
reinforces root system
repair of heavily eroded areas

Why use PVD over sand drain

Why use PVD (Prefabricated vertical drain) over sand drain

Installation of PVDs typically 6,000 linear meters per day (depending on the soil and the machine used it changes from 2000 to 8000) and result in a lower project cost.
No (or less) risk of PVDs breaking during installation - sand drains can have discontinuities if mandril is withdrawn too fast.
No (or less) risk of shear failure of PVDs during settlement - sand drains are vulnerable to shear failure during settlement.

Extra volume in waste containment

In the construction of waste containments there is an economic advantage of using geosynthetics products.
As seen in the first picture if you use traditional clay and gravel layers in the landfill you can have about 5000 m3 of volume.

But as seen in the second picture if geosynthetics materials are used in the waste disposal area a gain of extra volume will be about 300 m3 with an increase of about 6% in the same area.

Composite drainage for lost shuttering

Some geocomposite drainage products may be used as lost shuttering also.
The drainage composites which have a cement milk-proof layer on one side, made of PVC layer (nonwoven coated with a PP film) could be used for lost shuttering.

Application
1 side PVC geocomposite drains can be used as lost shuttering when installed against the foundation wall of the adjacent building, a bored pile wall, a vertical excavation face or a rock face, permitting to cast the fresh concrete immediately against the drain.

Typical roof garden sections

Below 2 typical roof garden sections. These are only to give an idea. Of course the designs change depending on the needs in the project.

The upper with conventional design. For drainage 2 nonwoven geotextile (filter fabric) layer and gravel in between were used on top of the waterproofing layer. (mineral drainage layer) Heavy and cost more to take the gravel to the roof. Bigger load on the concrete.

The below is with a geocomposite drainage layer, lightweight and easy to use. The drainage layer is only between 0.5- 1 kg depending on the material. ıt is factory made and tested material. The access water from the vegetation and soil comes to drainage layer and carried to channels.