The creep behavior of geotextiles under confined and unconfined conditions

Confined and unconfined creep tests were conducted for this study in order to determine the creep behavior of geotextiles. Evaluation was carried out to determine whether the safety factor 4 recommended in the relevant design manuals is overly conservative. Design loads ascertained using critical stress levels which exhibits the creep behavior was also studied. The amount of creep undergone by the geotextile was evaluated because this figure is directly influenced by friction between geotextile and soil during in-soil confined creep testing. It was found that under confined conditions a portion of the design load can be borne by this frictional resistance, greatly reducing the actual stresses borne by the geotextile itself. For this reason, it is proposed that the safety factor could be reduced by about 40%.