Geotextile tubes—analytical design aspects

Abstract The issue of horizontally lying, soil or slurry-filled geotextile tubes is covered. These tubes are utilised at present in coastal protection, river construction, dewatering of slurries, and in foundation engineering. Existing calculation methods and formulations are reviewed and compared. The method of Plaut and Suherman (1998) was chosen to carry out calculations and it was therefore programmed in Mathcad. Utilising the finite element method, models were created to get deeper knowledge about the tubes during consolidation and stacking. For the calculations the computer program ABAQUS was used. The models presented here are first approximations, which show tendencies and dependencies between different magnitudes. Diagrams are presented as application tools to simplify the design process. They are based on the dimensionless calculation method of Plaut and Suherman (1998) and describe the most important magnitudes of the tubes during the filling process.