Aug 2026· Applied Sciences· 0 citations· 87 references
Abstract
Wicking geotextiles are specialized geosynthetics designed to regulate soil moisture through a combination of capillary-barrier and lateral-drainage mechanisms. Laboratory and field studies demonstrate their effectiveness in reducing volumetric water content, restricting capillary rise, and maintaining subgrade and base stability under rainfall, dry–wet cycles, freeze–thaw cycles, and traffic loading. Performance is influenced by soil type, fines content, installation depth, edge exposure, and environmental conditions. Field applications show benefits in pavements, expansive soils, pumping-prone sections, cold-region roadbeds, and permeable urban infrastructure. Multi-layer and composite geotextiles further enhance hydraulic and mechanical performance. Despite these advantages, gaps remain in standardized testing, long-term monitoring, design methods, and durability assessments under aggressive conditions. This review synthesizes recent experimental and field evidence, highlighting mechanisms, performance factors, and research needs to guide the optimal design and application of wicking geotextiles in geotechnical engineering.
Capillary barrier systems (CBS) improve geotechnical structures by controlling water infiltration under unsaturated conditions. By exploiting hydraulic contrasts between fine and coarse layers, CBS effectively diverts water flow and reduces excess pore-water pressure. When integrated with reinforced soil structures (RSS), CBS enhances stability by maintaining matric suction and mitigating rainfall-induced softening, thereby offering a climate- resilient and resource-efficient alternative to traditional drainage methods. Driven by sustainability and circular economy objectives, the adoption of recycled and marginal geomaterials-such as reclaimed asphalt pavement, recycled concrete aggregate, and local soils–has increased. In addition, recent advances in measurement technologies and data analytics enable intelligent monitoring of CBS-RSS systems, representing a significant advancement in geotechnical engineering innovation.
However, the specific contributions and limitations of sustainable materials and data-driven monitoring approaches for CBS-RSS remain unclear, hindering their wider adoption in practice. Therefore, this study employed a PRISMA-compliant systematic review to identify, screen and synthesize 82 studies on CBS in RSS, focusing on two thematic clusters: sustainable and alternative materials, and monitoring technologies and data-driven/intelligent approaches. The study shows that recycled materials such as Reclaimed asphalt pavement, recycled concrete aggregate and steel slag can provide the hydraulic contrast required for CBS layers, but that multi-year field validation, leachate characterization and standardized SWCC testing protocols for recycled geomaterials are largely missing. In addition, the review exhibit that instrumented CBS-RSS systems equipped with tensiometers, moisture sensors, piezometers and, more recently, sensor-embedded geosynthetics and wireless or fiber-optic networks can deliver rich datasets, yet these data are rarely assimilated into digital-twin or physics-informed machine-learning frameworks for real-time performance assessment and design optimization. The review connects CBS technology with sustainability and intelligent monitoring, establishing CBS-RSS as a climate-resilient, resource-efficient, and intelligent alternative to conventional retaining systems, and delineating key research priorities for broader implementation.
J. C. Guzmán-Martínez, Ivan P. Damians, S. Olivella· Journal of Intelligent Geote...· 0 citations
Road infrastructure in Cameroon experiences rapid deterioration due to intense seasonal rainfall, high temperatures, and the predominance of weak lateritic soils in tropical environments. These unfavorable conditions reduce pavement performance, increase maintenance costs, and hinder sustainable transportation development, particularly on rural road networks. Soil stabilization using locally available materials has emerged as a cost-effective strategy for improving the engineering properties of these problematic soils. This study evaluates the effectiveness of locally sourced quicklime in enhancing the geotechnical characteristics of lateritic soils collected from the Kombe-Mbanga area in Cameroon and assesses its suitability for road subgrade applications. Ten representative soil samples were collected and characterized through laboratory testing, including particle size distribution, Atterberg limits, Modified Proctor compaction, California Bearing Ratio (CBR), and direct shear strength tests. The tests were performed before and after quicklime stabilization to quantify changes in the soils' mechanical behavior. In addition, statistical analyses were conducted to investigate the relationships between key geotechnical parameters and bearing capacity. The results demonstrate substantial improvements following stabilization. The average CBR increased from 9.04 to 45.08, indicating a significant enhancement in load-bearing capacity. Cohesion increased from 27 to 57 kPa, while the internal friction angle improved from 30° to 57°, reflecting greater shear strength and stability. Statistical analysis further revealed a strong negative correlation between the plasticity index and CBR (r = −0.67), confirming that high plasticity and fine particle content are the primary factors responsible for the poor engineering performance of the untreated soils. These findings demonstrate that locally available quicklime provides a simple, economical, and effective stabilization technique capable of transforming weak tropical lateritic soils into suitable road subgrade materials. The study offers practical guidance for the rehabilitation and construction of durable rural roads in Cameroon and other tropical regions with similar geotechnical and climatic conditions.
Guimezap Chance, N. Constant, Taypondou Japhet et al.· International Journal of Tra...· 0 citations
Interlocking permeable pavements (IPPs) are increasingly adopted within sustainable urban drainage systems to reduce runoff, improve water quality, and strengthen climate-resilient urban infrastructure. However, clogging remains the principal constraint on their long-term hydraulic performance and wider implementation. This review synthesises current evidence on clogging mechanisms, hydraulic decline, and lifecycle mitigation strategies for permeable interlocking concrete pavements (PICPs), concrete grid pavements (CGPs), and plastic grid pavers (PGPs). The literature is dominated by PICP studies, with CGP and PGP underrepresented, restricting typology-specific assessment. Sediment accumulation within joints, grid openings, bedding layers, and near-surface interfaces is consistently identified as the primary clogging mechanism, while traffic, rainfall-runoff loading, biological processes, pollutant retention, and sediment inputs from adjacent impervious surfaces further influence hydraulic deterioration. The findings indicate that hydraulic performance is influenced not only by pavement age but also by interactions among pavement design, filler or joint material, drainage configuration, construction quality, sediment exposure, monitoring, and maintenance. Effective mitigation therefore requires lifecycle management, encompassing source control, pretreatment, appropriate material selection, construction quality assurance, routine hydraulic monitoring, and timely preventive and restorative maintenance. Future research should prioritise standardised clogging assessment protocols, improved laboratory–field integration, targeted investigation of CGP and PGP, biological and pollutant-linked clogging processes, climate-driven rainfall extremes, and decision-support.
Bockarie Samai, A. Kebede, Carola S. König et al.· Water· 0 citations
The increasing use of locally sourced fine-grained soils in embankment construction increases susceptibility to rainfall-induced instability due to low permeability, high water retention and limited shear strength. This study investigates the coupled reinforcement–drainage behaviour of geosynthetics in fine-grained embankments subjected to controlled rainfall infiltration. Laboratory-scale physical model tests were conducted to examine moisture migration, pore water pressure, earth pressure and deformation. Unreinforced slopes exhibited rapid infiltration with moisture contents increasing to 27.6–29.5% within the first hour. Reinforced slopes showed capillary barrier effects, causing transient moisture accumulation above reinforcement layers, while geocomposites provided effective lateral drainage, producing a pore pressure differential of 2.56 kPa, nearly three times that of geotextiles. Geocomposites reduced pore pressure rise by approximately 37% relative to unreinforced conditions and induced negative pressures beneath the reinforcement, indicating enhanced suction recovery and stress redistribution. Soil fines content strongly governed the hydraulic response where a 20% fines embankment showed rapid infiltration and low retention, whereas a ≥40% fines embankment retained over 50% moisture. The 20% fines embankment exhibited the largest crest settlement and localised toe failure. Numerical simulations reproduced the observed hydro-mechanical responses with minor deviations during post-rainfall dissipation, demonstrating that geocomposites significantly enhance the rainfall resilience and stability of fine-grained embankments.
Lihua Li, Han Zhou, Xunchang Fei et al.· Geotechnical Engineering· 0 citations
Geotextile tubes, hydraulically filled with a slurry of fine silt and water, have been variously applied in hydraulic and coastal engineering fields. However, geotextile damage poses a great threat to structures made of geotextile tubes. When a water head difference exists across the tube, the soil in damaged tubes is affected by the dual actions of seepage and scour. To investigate soil failure patterns and tendencies of damaged tubes under hydraulic action, a structural apparatus and the corresponding test method were designed. Four factors considered were the radius of the damaged area (r0: 0.25–2.0 cm), the grain size distribution (Sand B Cu = 3.4, Sand E Cu = 50), the scouring flow velocity (v: 0–4 cm/s), and the hydraulic gradient. The results showed that the scouring flow exerted a limited effect on the failure mode of sand in the tubes, and that the failure process of sand in the tubes could be divided into three stages including a stable, an initial erosion, and a cyclic sand outflow stage. The hydraulic gradient at the initial erosion stage was defined as the critical gradient(jcr), which was interactively influenced by sand gradation, damage radius, and scouring flow velocity. Under identical conditions, Sand E exhibited a higher resistance against seepage-induced failure than Sand B. In terms of stability under varying conditions, for Sand B, increasing the damage radius (tested at flow velocities of 0–4 cm/s) reduced jcr by 94%–100%, while increasing the flow velocity (tested at damage radii of 0.25–2.0 cm) reduced jcr by 60%–100%. For Sand E, the corresponding reductions were 83%–95% and 58%–88%, respectively, further confirming Sand E’s superior erosion resistance.
Tailings storage facility (TSF) reclamation commonly involves the construction of cover systems, requiring large volumes of materials with specific hydro-geotechnical properties. When suitable materials are not locally available, their extraction and transport can generate significant environmental and economic costs. On abandoned or inactive TSFs, where long-term acid mine drainage may occur, reclamation is highly sensitive to geochemical conditions, especially for weathered tailings affected by indirect oxidation and secondary mineral precipitation. Using these tailings as cover materials represents a promising alternative but would require improvement of their mechanical performance and limitation of metal leaching. This study investigated the effectiveness of general use limestone (GUL) and slag-based cements, a combination of GU and ground granulated blast furnace slag (GGBFS), for the solidification/stabilization of weathered tailings to create a hydraulic barrier. Cemented paste mixtures incorporating 5–7 wt% binder were evaluated through unconfined compressive strength (UCS), saturated hydraulic conductivity (ksat), and mineralogical analyses. The addition of binder significantly increased mechanical strength and reduced ksat, with UCS > 1000 kPa and ksat < 1 × 10−9 m/s, generally achieved after 28 days of curing with 7 wt% binder. Performance depended on tailings geochemistry: slag-based cement (20GU/80GGBFS) performed better in tailings with neutral paste pH, while GUL yielded higher UCS in acidic tailings. Very limited hydrate formation was observed: mainly ettringite in GUL-treated sulfate-rich tailings and C–S–H in slag-treated mixtures. These results demonstrated that cementitious treatment of TSFs could be an efficient, if binder type and dosage are adapted to site physical and geochemical variability of weathered tailings.
Audrey Jalce, Isabelle Demers, B. Plante et al.· Geotechnical and Geological...· 0 citations
