On behavior of limited life Geotextile materials for reinforcing embankment on soft ground

Constrain on availability of waste landfill sites and stinging environmental regulations are the major reasons stimulating interest in the use of Limited Life Materials in construction industry. The concept of limited life geotextiles seeks to emphasize a clear definable working life, where materials are designed so that progressive loss of their capability with time is matched with the improvement in the ground conditions with time. By clearly defining a working life of the geotextile base on the improvements in ground conditions overtime will reduce over-designing and construction. This paper mainly focus on the ability of biodegradable geotextiles to provide reinforcement to embankments constructed on soft ground where the foundation soil is too weak to support the embankment on it. It is well known that any degradable (decay) material has negative exponential function. Consequently nonlinear function which approximates decay phenomenon is engrossed with errors. The existing methods of investigating time dependent behaviors of Basal reinforced embankment on the soft soil are based on discrete functional equations derived from large number of data. This paper provides an update of effective mathematical equation for predicting limited life span of geotextiles derived from the fundamental mathematical and engineering principles which governed biodegradable materials and soil parameters.