General design aspects - Geosystems: Design Rules and Applications - page 13

Table 2.5 Type of seams with typical strength efficiencies for geotextiles.

Seam Description Strength of seam on seam side

Prayer seam
common in geotextile containers
when closure is made on-site

30-50% of strength of geotextile

40-70% of strength of geotextile

Butterfly seam

30-60% of strength of geotextile

J-seam

Double J-seam 50-70% of strength of geotextile

Overlap Z-seam
can only be produced in the
factory with special equipment

> 80% of strength of geotextile

reduction is even larger. For geotextile containers on-site closures have been devel-
oped with strengths of up to 80% of the strength of the geotextile.
In this manual it is assumed (e.g. in the calculation examples) that the seams have
been properly stitched. If this is not the case, then the maximum tensile load capabil-
ity will decrease correspondingly. For quality control purposes, it is necessary for the
seam strength to be controlled during the manufacturing process with subsequent
traceability.