Geocontainers

Geocontainers are relatively new engineering systems ( Figure 1 ). Nicolon B.V. has developed this system and copyrighted the name for GeoContainers ( Nicolon, 1988 ). Geocontainers hydraulically and/or mechanically filled with (dredged) granular materials have been successfully applied in hydraulic and coastal engineering in recent years (shore protection, breakwaters, etc.). They can also be used to store and isolate contaminated materials obtained from harbour dredging, and/or as bunds for reclamation works ( Fowler and Sprague, 1993 , Pilarczyk, 1995 , 1996 ). The first applications were based on past experience with similar systems. Recently, new preliminary design rules supported by model and prototype tests, and some analytical calculations have been developed in the Netherlands and the USA.