Mitigation of Soil Erosion Using Jute Geotextile

Internal erosion in earthen dams causes a substantial concern for the integrity and safety of earthen dams. Globally, earthen dams constitute 88% of all existing dams and around 28% of them fail due to piping phenomenon. The present study evaluates the suitability of jute geotextile in mitigating such erosion failures. The hole erosion test (HET) has been used in this study to understand the erosion process at a laboratory scale. The studies have been performed at varying moisture contents of soil with and without jute geotextile. The jute geotextile layer was placed on the downstream face of the sampler to evaluate its effect in arresting soil particle migration. It was observed that the rate of erosion was minimal, at optimum moisture content (OMC). Below OMC, the soil particles had lower density, which resulted in a higher erosion rate. The utilization of the jute geotextile was found to mitigate soil erosion successfully. In the presence of jute geotextile, the erosion rate decreased by 48% at OMC. Additionally, image analysis was conducted to evaluate the variations in a hole diameter after the test. Overall, the study highlighted the beneficial uses of jute geotextile in reducing soil erosion in earthen dams.