Water Flow Through Geotextiles Used to Support the Root Zone of Turfgrass on Sports Fields
A sports field construction method that uses a geotextile to support the root zone atop a synthetic drainage structure is an alternative to the common design that uses gravel drainage material to support the root zone. A study was conducted to address the concern that fine particles in the root zone...
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| Format: | Others |
| Language: | en_US |
| Published: |
2010
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| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-08-6970 http://hdl.handle.net/1969.1/ETD-TAMU-2009-08-6970 |
| Summary: | A sports field construction method that uses a geotextile to support the root zone
atop a synthetic drainage structure is an alternative to the common design that uses
gravel drainage material to support the root zone. A study was conducted to address the
concern that fine particles in the root zone may migrate under the influence of
percolating water, clog geotextile pores, and restrict the amount of water drained from a
sports field. In test columns, six root zone mixtures with different particle size
distributions were combined with ten geotextiles with different opening sizes to produce
60 replicated treatments. Water flow through the root zone mixture-geotextile
combinations in the test columns was evaluated over a six-month period. Change in
permeability was assessed by monitoring the temporal distribution of drainage from a
25-mm pulse of water applied to 300-mm deep root zone mixture in the test column.
Particles in drainage water were analyzed for size distribution. The study revealed that
drainage rates were affected more by drainage trough the root zone mixture than through
the geotextile. The amount and particle size distribution of particles in drainage water
were influenced more by root zone mixture than by geotextile. It appeared that in the establishment phase of a sports field that fine particles in the root zone may present more
of a problem to clogging of the root zone pores than clogging of the geotextile pores. |
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