Physical and Mechanical Properties: Latex-coated Banaca Geotextile Net

Abstract

Banaca net has been proven to be an effective alternative geotextile blanket that mitigates soil erosion. This paper encompasses the properties and the significant influence of administering the ratio of 50% Banana fibers & 50% Abaca fibers in the production of Banaca geotextile. The Banaca nets were constructed manually. Laboratory tests were conducted to determine the corresponding tensile strength for single-twined and wide-width tensile strength of the constructed net. To assert how these ratios, influence the Banaca net. The results showed that the Banaca net with the same percentage of banana fiber and abaca fiber is stronger in terms of the average tensile strength per twine of 920N and an average lengthwise tensile strength of 15.6KN/m plus the average crosswise tensile strength of 16.4KN/m for wide width tensile strength is the best for slope protection reinforcement. The result also conveys that the Banaca net had an average water absorption of 212% which can reduce the soil saturation the most. This study proved that altering the ratios of the fiber percentage of Banaca fiber geotextile net is effective at targeting the desired performance of geotextile. The mass per unit area computation shows the three (3) results of geotextile nets with the dimension of 200mm by 200mm and a mass of 28.15g, 26.30g, and 27.5g that although the banaca fiber net possesses higher mass per unit area value, it is closely like coconet, making it possible to be made into geotextile. This means that the banaca fiber net conforms and passes the standard specifications ASTM D5261-10. Latex coating contributes to the performance of the geotextile since the banaca fiber rope and the net are coated with latex, the output becomes compact and can lessen the probability of its outer strand being damaged.