Change pattern of geomembrane surface roughness for geotextile/textured geomembrane interfaces

Applying textured geomembrane improves the frictional performance of geotextile and geomembrane interfaces. However, very limited research has been conducted to analyze the variation in textured geomembrane roughness during geotextile/geomembrane interface shear processes. In this study, a geomembrane surface roughness measurement method for measuring asperity height data with fixed intervals was presented. Normalized profile length and fractal dimension were used to quantitatively describe the geomembrane surface deformation during the geotextile/textured geomembrane interface shear process. It was found that applying normal stress led to a reduction of the roughness parameters. After the mobilization of the peak shear stress during the shear process, the chosen roughness parameters decreased with the shear displacement. And, increasing the normal stress made the shear-induced reduction of roughness parameters more obvious. The hyperbolic model can be used to describe the quantitative relationship between the geomembrane roughness parameters and the shear displacement. This study can help explain the displacement-softening post-peak behavior of the geotextile/textured geomembrane interfaces. •A geomembrane surface roughness measurement method for measuring asperity height data with fixed intervals was presented.•The roughness parameter calculation method was presented based on the geomembrane surface roughness measurement method.•The variation of geomembrane roughness parameters was obtained by comparing the same specimen before and after tests.•The hyperbolic model was used to describe the variation of roughness parameters during shear process.•The mechanism of the geotextile/geomembrane interface post-peak strength reduction was discussed based on the test results.