Abstract: By using the data acquired from laboratory and field monitoring program, this study assessed the displacements of high-strength geotextile used as basal reinforcement of a closing levee. The displacements of the geotextile were monitored by high stiffness, large gauge length and measuring range SDW-100 displacement transducers with 500 kN/m high-strength woven geotextile .The transducers were first calibrated in a multi-function test machine. The tensile test of the geotextile yielded a tensile stiffness of 8314.4 kN/m. The field monitoring data indicate that: (1) The displacements of the geotextile at the base of the closing levee showing a concave shape and maximum displacement occurred along the center line. (2) The displacements of the geotextiles is explicitly influenced by the movement of the attached toe-berms. (3) The measured maximum strain is 11.9% which is equivalent to 837.40 kN/m in tension. The high strain indicates that the geotextile with higher tensile stiffness should be used. (4) The stress redistribution between the stages of the construction is observed. This phenomenon is further verified by numerical simulation using Plaxis. (5) The strain of the geotextile is a function of the closing levee backfilling rate. An appropriate backfilling rate should be selected to limit the strain in geotextile. (6) With the same tensile strength, the larger elongation can accommodate faster construction.

Key words: high-strength woven geotextile, reinforced cushion, displacement transducer, elongation test, Plaxis finite element calulation, concave shape