Source: New Cloth Market
Abstract
A wealth of textile structures is available for a broadrange of geotechnical applications. An understanding of the dynamic interactionbetween the textile structure and the geotechnical environment is essential inthe design and selection of textile materials for geotextile applications.Multiaxial warp knit structures and raided structures are introduced asexamples of this understanding while demonstrating their potential as ultifunctionalstructural geotextiles. This paper concludes by reviewing a new way of joininggeotextiles by robotic one-side stitching technology and by examining the implicationof emerging nanofiber technologies for the next generation of geotextiles.
Introduction
The name of Professor Robert Koerner is synonymous withgeotextiles and geosynthetics. His name is associated with pioneeringdevelopment in the 1970's, fueled by his tireless offering of a series ofcourses in geotextiles in the Philadelphia Engineers Club, around the US and the world. These lectures cumulated in the first book on geotextiles in 1980. AtDrexel, he played a leadership role in stimulating the formation of variouscenters of excellence in 1986, thus officially kicking off the steady growth ofthe Geotextile Research Institute (GRI) into a leading R&D center forgeosynthetics.
Professor. Koerner's tireless efforts in educatinggenerations of civil engineers and textile/polymer material engineers (as wellas the creative design and characterization methodologies that he developed)have played a major role in the explosive growth of geotextiles in the pastthree decades .It would not be exaggerating to honor Professor Koerner bycalling this the Koerner Growth Curve.
About the Author:
The author is associated with Department of MaterialsScience and Engineering, Drexel University.
Originallypublished in: New Cloth Market, August-2010
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