The behaviour of soil–geotextile systems in filtration tests is reported for nonwoven geotextiles under unidirectional flow. A new apparatus was developed to preform filtration tests under an applied vertical stress, and tests were then conducted with different soils and nonwoven geotextiles in order to evaluate the clogging potential and retention capacity of these materials under rather severe combinations of geotextile and soil characteristics. Results show that the geotextiles perfomed well and that observed permeability losses were acceptable even for gradient ratios close to 3. No progressive piping was observed, and it is believed that the retention capacity of the geotextiles may be influenced by their manufacturing process. In general, theoretical predictions for the maximum particle size passing through the geotextile compared well with measurements.Key words:geotextiles, filtration, gradient ratio, permeability, soil retention, clogging