History of Geosynthetics

Geosynthetics are geosynthetic materials that are widely used in geotechnical engineering today, and they are a generic term for polymer products. As early as the 1920s, the chemical industry successfully produced synthetic materials, but it was not until the late 1950s that these materials were gradually promoted as a new type of construction material for geotechnical engineering. The early products were mainly permeable woven and non-woven geotextiles, and later impermeable geomembranes were produced. With the requirements of engineering practice and the improvement of manufacturing process, geogrids and other combined products with high strength reinforcement were manufactured one after another. In this way, the original term geotextile is far from being able to summarize the meaning of various products, so there are many alternative names in the international arena, among which the term geomaterial is the most common, but it is still customarily called geotextile.   

Geotechnical materials are divided into several categories of materials: geotextiles, geomembranes, geogrids, drainage boards, composite geomembranes, geonets, geocells, bentonite waterproof blankets, etc.