Geotextile Types & Specifications: What Are They and What Are the Differences?

As a geotextile manufacturer with more than 10 years of experience, we’ve seen many customers fall into pitfalls when selecting geotextiles. They spend a lot of money, but due to a lack of understanding of the differences between types and specifications, the materials don’t match the project requirements—leading to rework or problems discovered after construction.

In fact, choosing geotextiles is not that complicated. The key is to match the type and specification with your own project needs.

The core of geotextile classification lies in its production process and functional characteristics.

Geotextile is a general term. According to the production process and application scenarios, there are mainly several types. It is enough to understand the suitable scenarios to make the right choice.

1. Short-Filament Geotextile

It is mainly made of polyester (PET) or polypropylene (PP) short fibers as raw materials, formed by opening, carding and needle punching. Its surface looks a bit like thick non-woven fabric.

Core Advantages: High fiber crimp, firm interweaving, not easy to delaminate and break, and excellent weather resistance and erosion resistance.

We once had a customer who was doing river slope protection. At first, he chose other types of geotextiles just to save money. After a heavy rain, all the geotextiles were washed away by the rain. Later, he replaced them with short-filament geotextiles, which have been used for several years without any problems. Its main application scope includes water conservancy, highways and railways, with core functions of isolation, drainage and reverse filtration. It is a commonly used basic type of geotextile.

2. Long-Filament Geotextile

It is mainly made of polyester melt spun into a web. Because the fibers are continuous, it has extremely strong tensile strength. However, it also has disadvantages: the fiber binding force is not as good as that of short fibers, and it is easy to delaminate if exposed outdoors for a long time.

It is generally suitable for underground cushion layers and non-water-related subgrade reinforcement. Under the same grammage, its price is slightly lower than that of short-filament geotextile. However, it is not suitable for water-related projects such as slope protection and river courses, otherwise the later maintenance cost will be too high.

3. Woven Geotextile

It is mainly made of warp and weft yarns interwoven, with a stable structure and not easy to break. It is often referred to as the "tough guy" and is suitable for high-stress environments.

For example, it can provide strong reinforcement to prevent deformation in slope protection, large-scale dams and factories with high requirements. However, its water permeability is relatively poor.

4. Composite Geotextile

It is mainly compounded by non-woven fabric and PE or PVC film, which is often referred to as "one fabric one film" or "two fabrics one film". It combines the filtration and reinforcement functions of non-woven fabric with the anti-seepage function of film, and is generally used in complex engineering projects.

It is often used in scenarios such as landfills, sewage treatment plants and tunnels. As a core material, composite geotextile can prevent damage and has a low probability of being permeated.

Geotextile Specifications & Parameters

Specifications are the core indicators. Do not only focus on the price and ignore the specifications, otherwise you will easily suffer losses. In fact, there are only a few key specification parameters, and it is enough to figure them out.

Grammage

Grammage refers to the weight per square meter, generally ranging from 100g/m² to 800g/m². The higher the grammage, the better the strength, the thicker the geotextile, the stronger the breaking resistance, but the lower the flexibility.

You can refer to the following ranges according to your own application scenarios:

- Garden paving and temporary isolation: 100g/m² - 150g/m²

- Water conservancy project slope protection: 200g/m² - 300g/m²

- Subgrade reinforcement: 350g/m² - 400g/m²

- Dams and landfills: 500g/m² - 800g/m²

Width and Length

The common width of geotextile is 4-6 meters, and some are 8-9 meters. The wider the width, the fewer welding points during construction, which can not only improve construction efficiency, but also reduce water leakage. The normal length is 50-100 meters, which can be cut according to actual needs.

Core Differences Between Types and Specifications

Most people cannot distinguish between types and specifications. In fact, the choice is determined by the application scenario.

- The difference between short-filament and long-filament geotextiles lies in the environment: choose short-filament for water-related scenarios, and long-filament for non-water-related scenarios.

- The difference between woven and needle-punched geotextiles lies in strength and water permeability: choose woven for high-stress scenarios, and needle-punched for drainage and filtration scenarios.

- Composite geotextile is mainly used to meet anti-seepage needs.

As for specifications, it is simple: grammage determines the applicable project level. Lighter grammage corresponds to low load, and heavier grammage corresponds to high load. Even for the same short-filament geotextile, the price of 100g/m² and 600g/m² differs greatly, and they cannot be used interchangeably.

Purchase Reminder

There are many manufacturers on the market that sell low-grammage geotextiles as high-grammage ones, or pass off long-filament geotextiles as short-filament ones. When choosing, please keep your eyes open and preferably ask for a test report to ensure product quality.

Conclusion

That’s all about the differences and application scenarios of geotextiles. We hope this article will help you make the right choice. If you have any questions about geotextile selection for specific projects, feel free to contact us—we will provide professional suggestions based on our 10-year production experience.