In the first place has been taken into consideration a geocomposite consisting of at least a woven geonet and nonwoven geotextile fabric. The intrinsic characteristics of the fabric resulting from specific selected material with low weight and free of holes, allows the drainage of water and especially gas exchange through the geocomposite. It's known that nonwoven fabrics in the Geotechnical are mainly used as filters of separation of the various layers, but do not prevent roots penetration in the soil thanks of their internal porosity and those interconnected pores are irregular in shape and three-dimensional (being pores not holes, they have a three-dimensional shape).
The roots grow creeping in the fabric within the pores and the divaricator action of the roots creates the space within the tissue without any particular difficulty, then the roots penetrate the nonwoven fabric when they find free space and ideal conditions (water, air and nutrients) and grow even under the fabric in the soil.
To optimize the conditions for the development of the roots, it only remains to reduce the mechanical forces of nonwoven geotextile, increase the porosity in the tissue and in the growth medium above and beneath of this special backing. One of the purposes of coupling of the woven Geonet with nonwoven Geotextile is precisely to filter fine particles thanks to a light Geotextile, but also offer a certain mechanical strength to the Geocomposite according to the intended use.
In Geosynthetic industry there are already suitable products and it only necessary to apply them of the manufacture of synthetic turf in order to produce a hybrid system.
Testing the growth in nonwoven Geotextile we observed two major advantages for the growth of the grass.
A valid alternative is apparently easier to manufacture a synthetic surface on a three-dimensional Geonet. In this case we faced two technical problems:
Applying a special made artificial turf to reinforce natural grass has so many advantages but inevitably we have some limits. We need to study an specific growth medium to:
was not easy, but we did it developing Geofill PG.
PowerGrass is the best way to start up a field construction but, like any living system without skilled person, failure may occur.
We see everyday a strong interest and we realize that the project will be soon widespread all over the world, but to make it successful we believe that experts need to get a complete understanding on how to make it work. We designed PowerGrass to be easy and simple, but natural grass is a cultivation which requires skilled personnel.
Initial growth in PowerGrass wtih Geofill PG
Natural grass grows faster and uniform in PowerGrass with sand and 50% Geofill PG.
Initial growth in USGA standard topsoil
The growth is slower and less uniform in the substrate to USGA standards with 80% sand and 20% peat.
Young Seedling are growing fast
The young seedlings (light green) grow between the synthetic yarns (dark green). A month later everything seems completely natural and it is difficult to identify the synthetic turf.
Roots Growth below PowerGrass backing
The grass breathes above and below the artificial backing, grows healthy and vigorous.