The worst loads a geotextile often sees come during construction, from dumped stone, dozers and compactors, not from service. Specs group fabrics into survivability classes by grab strength, tear, puncture and elongation, with tougher classes for coarse, angular fill, soft subgrade and thin first lifts. A fabric strong enough for the design but too weak for construction fails before it ever works.
Survivability rules the choice here, angular riprap dropped from three feet, so it's Class 1 or nothing.
Also heard as
- construction survivability
- installation survivability
Related terms
AASHTO M 288
US highway specification for geotextiles that sets required properties by application and survivability class.
Installation damage
Loss of geosynthetic strength caused by placing, spreading and compacting fill on it.
Grab tensile
Index tensile test on geotextiles in which a 100 mm wide specimen is gripped by 25 mm jaws in its middle.
CBR puncture
Puncture test in which a 50 mm plunger is pushed through a clamped geosynthetic, simulating a stone pressing into it.