Experimental Studies on Interfacial Shear Characteristics between Polypropylene Woven Fabrics

Geotextile tubes are used in dam construction because fine tailings are difficult to use. The shear characteristics of geotextile tubes during dam operation are closely related to those of the materials used to construct the tubes. Pull-out tests can accurately reflect the interfacial shear characteristics between geosynthetics in practice, so pull-out tests were carried out for different interfacial types of polypropylene woven fabrics under dry and wet states. The effects of the type of interface and dry-wet states on the interfacial shear characteristics were investigated, and the impact mechanisms were also discussed. The results indicated that P-type interfaces (the warp yarn on the interface is parallel to the pulling direction) tended to harden. However, PTP-type (the warp yarn on the interface is perpendicular to each other) and T-type (the weft yarn on the interface is parallel to the pulling direction) interfaces softened first and then tended to plateau after reaching peak shear stress, and softening became more obvious at higher normal stresses. The displacement corresponding to peak shear stress (referred to as “peak displacement” in this paper) of interfaces was positively correlated with the normal stress, and the wet state reduced the interfacial peak displacement. For different types of interfaces, the peak displacement of the T-type interface was the largest, followed by PTP-type and P-type. Interfacial shear characteristics conformed to Mohr–Coulomb strength theory and, compared with quasi-cohesion values ranging from 1.334 to 3.606 kPa, the quasi-friction angle significantly contributed to the interfacial shear strength. The quasi-friction angle of the interface was composed of a sliding friction angle and an occlusal friction angle. The shear strength of the interface was more sensitive to the interface types than whether they were in the dry or wet state. For different types of interfaces and dry-wet states, the change in the interfacial shear strength is respectively affected by the occlusal friction angle and the sliding friction angle on the interface.