GSI to host webinar on geotextile tubes

The Geosynthetic Institute (GSI) will sponsor a webinar, “Applications and Design of Geotextile Tubes,” on May 13, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. EDT. Geosynthetic Materials Association (GMA) member companies and their employees receive discounted rates on all GSI webinar and short course registrations.

Geotextile tubes are large, factory-fabricated textile tubes with multiple access ports for introduction of the infilled material, which is generally dredged and in slurry form. Sand or gravel is used for erosion control, whereas soil fines and sludges are used for dewatering and/or decontamination. The tubes themselves have progressed up to 16 feet (5 m) in diameter and the applications have grown accordingly.

After an overview, a nine-part design procedure is presented which represents the current state- of-the-practice. It then proceeds with details of adding decontamination materials to the slurries for the purpose of properly handling contaminated river and harbor sediments. Several economic examples are presented. The summary will counterpoint the various applications against one another.

Learning Objectives

Participants will learn the fabric-manufacturing details, including testing, as well as design idiosyncrasies of geotextile tubes. The design has indeed progressed to where confidence of success is readily achieved. Current extensions into adding deflocculants to reduce “filter cake” formation and neutralizing hazardous constituents of fine-grained sludges will be explained accordingly.

Webinar Benefits

1. Understand manufacturing details, including seams, of geotextile tubes
2. Understand the various applications for geotextile tubes
3. Learn details of the complete design process through nine separate items
4. Learn about chemical deflocculating materials
5. Learn about additives to neutralize contaminants
6. Counterpoint applications-to-design-to-performance of this exciting field of geosynthetic engineering

Webinar Instructor

Dr. George R. Koerner is the director of the Geosynthetic Institute, a position that he has held since 2014. Koerner’s interest in geosynthetics spans his entire professional life from undergraduate work in the 1980s to the present. He holds his Ph.D. in civil, architectural and environmental engineering from Drexel University in Philadelphia, Pa. Koerner’s master thesis was on direct shear testing of geosynthetic interfaces and his doctoral dissertation was on landfill leachate clogging of soil and geosynthetic filters. Both are regularly cited to this day.

Koerner is a professional engineer in both Pennsylvania and New Jersey and is an ASQC quality auditor.

***

Webinars cost $200.00 for GSI and GMA members, and $250.00 for nonmembers. Successful completion of a multiple-choice test after the webinar carries 1.5 professional development hours (PDH).

For more information or to register, visit http://www.geosynthetic-institute.org/webinar.htm.