Design and calculation methods of geotextile tubes filled with soil slurry

Using geotextile tubes to construct dikes for land reclamation has been a widely used technique. The tubes are usually filled with slurry of soils, such as sand, silt or clay. The tensile force developed in the geotextile during filling the tube is the dominant factor to construct a safe dike. The existing design methods are good for designing sausage shaped tubes but can not be directly applied to designing flat tubes, which are commonly used in dike construction. This paper presents a procedure that can determine the relationship among the tube size, the pumping pressure, the unit weight of the slurry and the tensile force developed in the geotextile during filing the tube. In the calculation model, the anisotropy of the filled slurry is put in consideration. The procedure has been programmed, which can help the designer to select material and determine the geometry and dimensions for the geotextile tube.