What are geocomposites?
Geocomposites are engineered products made by combining two or more geosynthetics (such as geonets, geomembranes, geogrids, or geotextile) into a single layered system.
Combining materials this way lets one product deliver drainage, filtration, separation, or reinforcement performance that a single geosynthetic layer can't achieve on its own, while simplifying installation to a single layer instead of several.
Strata Geosystems Geocomposites
Land fill solutions
Civil works
Water Management
What are the different types of geocomposites?
Geocomposites are generally categorized by which geosynthetics are combined and which function that combination is built to perform:
Geonet-geotextile composites (drainage composites)
A geonet core laminated with a geotextile filter on one or both sides. Built primarily for drainage, filtration, and separation; water passes through the geotextile, moves laterally through the geonet's open channels, and is carried away, while the geotextile keeps fine soil particles from clogging the drainage path. This is also the category our product StrataDrain™ belongs to.
How do geonet-geotextile drainage composites work?
What materials make up a geonet-geotextile geocomposite?
Geotextile filter layer: Typically made from polypropylene, engineered to let water pass through while retaining soil particles. This filtration behavior is governed by the fabric's Apparent Opening Size (AOS), its effective pore size, rather than the thickness of the finished composite.
HDPE geonet core: Produced from high-density polyethylene through extrusion, forming a network of interconnected ribs with open channels between them. These channels give the geonet its in-plane (horizontal) drainage capacity, letting water move laterally across the plane of the material rather than only passing through it.
Why does the geonet-geotextile interaction matter for performance?
Geonet-geotextile interaction
Geonets are typically manufactured with a porosity (the ratio of void volume to total volume) of roughly 80–95%, giving them hydraulic conductivity far higher than the surrounding soil. This is what allows rapid lateral drainage instead of water pooling in the ground around a structure.
How well the two layers perform as a system depends on three factors: the permeability and pore size (AOS) of the geotextile, the thickness and aperture size of the geonet, and the bond strength at the interface between them. At that interface, fiber-soil interactions - at the microscale between fibers and individual soil particles, and at the macroscale between fibers and larger soil aggregates - create frictional resistance that inhibits sliding between layers, which is a key contributor to stability in structures like retaining walls and embankments under load.
Where are geonet-geotextile geocomposites used?
Landfills
As part of capping and lining systems, reducing water infiltration, protecting the geomembrane liner from puncture, and preventing the drainage layer from clogging with fines, which supports the site's leachate and gas management systems.
StrataDrain™: Strata Geosystems' geonet-geotextile geocomposite
StrataDrain™
[StrataDrain™](https://www.strataGeosystems.com/geocomposite-stratadrain/) is Strata Geosystems' drainage geocomposite, combining an HDPE geonet core with a polypropylene geotextile filter to deliver the drainage, filtration, and separation functions described above. It's manufactured to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) Section 700-10 specification, is ISO and CE certified, EPD verified, and is rated for a 100-year service life.
StrataDrain™ is available in three configurations built for different site conditions:
1. StrataDrain SD, general-purpose, suited to most applications
2. StrataDrain TD, engineered for high-pressure conditions
3. StrataDrain HF, optimized for landfill capping
Frequently asked questions
How is a geocomposite different from a standalone geotextile or geonet?
A geonet alone has no filtration capability and will clog with fine soil particles over time. A geotextile alone has no in-plane drainage capacity. It only lets water pass through it, not move water laterally across a plane. Laminating the two into a geocomposite gets both functions from a single installed layer.
Success Stories
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