Designing with geocontainers : inventory for future research

A geocontainer is constructed in a split barge. After construction it is subsequently involved in descending and deforming during the opening of the barge, falling out of the barge, falling through the water and falling on the seabed. Finally it may deform and loose its stability due to waves and other hydraulic loads. Quantitative descriptions for all these stages, available from previous studies, were critically reviewed and supplemented. A survey of the resulting equations for the forces, deformations and stability conditions of the geocontainer are presented. Calculations have been made for several examples showing which conditions and which stages appear to be the most critical. Several of the descriptions, however, need experimental verification before they can be considered to be reliable. Proposals for such verifications are presented.