Department of Civil Engineering IIT Guwahati

8/7/2013

CE 641 Lecture 2: Reinforced Soil

Reinforced Soil
Reinforced Soil
Composite material
Soil
Cohesionless soils
Poor/No tension behavior

Soil Reinforced Soil Tension Resistant Elements

Mostly with frictional characteristics having good compression behavior

Cohesive soils
Exhibit some tension resistance due to the cohesive bond (e.g. vertical cuts up to some height can stand without any support) Large height of vertical or near-vertical cuts requires to be reinforced

Tension resistant elements

Form - Sheet, strips, nets, or mats Composition - Metal, synthetic fibres, or fibre-reinforced plastics Main purpose
Reduction or suppression of tensile strain developed due to gravity or boundary forces Orientation Direction of tensile strains

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CE 641 Lecture 2: Reinforced Soil

Soil Reinforcement: Historical Use

Beaver Dams
Mud reinforced with grasses, tree trunks, and stones

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CE 641 Lecture 2: Reinforced Soil

Soil Reinforcement: Historical Use

Ziggurats of Mesopotamia
Constructed of clay bricks Reinforcement
Mats of woven reeds Plaited ropes

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CE 641 Lecture 2: Reinforced Soil

Soil Reinforcement: Historical Use

Great wall of China
Sections in eastern China
Bricks and chiseled stones

Sections in western China

Clay or pounded earth reinforced with tree branches

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CE 641 Lecture 2: Reinforced Soil

Soil Reinforcement: Historical Use

Inca, Maya and Aztec structures
Adobe bricks
Blocks of mud embedded with straw having good tensile strength

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CE 641 Lecture 2: Reinforced Soil

Soil Reinforcement: Modern Day Construction

Swami Narain Temple, Tithal Gujarat
Stone-filled rope gabions for shoreline stabilization

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CE 641 Lecture 2: Reinforced Soil

Soil Reinforcement: Modern Day Construction

Widening of narrow road stretch at Vijaywada
22m high geosynthetic reinforced retaining walls

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CE 641 Lecture 2: Reinforced Soil

Soil Reinforcement: Reinvention

Henri Vidal (1963)
Coined the term Reinforced Earth (La Terre Armee) Accidental invention while playing with children in beach building wetsand houses
Patent in 1963

Concept used superfluous in reinforced retaining walls

Steel strips and steel membrane facing

Vidal, H. (1966) La Terre Armee Annuls de Institue Technique du Batiments et des Travaux Publics, Paris, France

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Soil Reinforcement: Novel Charactertistics

Prefabricated elements
Precast skin units or panels Reinforcing strips, sheets or nets
Easily handled, stored and assembled

Flexible nature of reinforced earth mass

Withstand large differential settlement without distress

Permits construction of geotechnical structures on poor and difficult subsoil conditions Economical
25-50% saving in cost (Schlosser and Long, 1974; Jones, 1985)

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Portrayal of Basic Mechanism

Primarily developed for cohesionless soils
Carries tensile stress Suppression of anisotropic lateral suppression or strain

Cohesion
Bond between adjacent particles
Electro-static forces Cementation

Prohibits free movement

Results in increased shear strength

Concept of pseudo-cohesion (Vidal, 1978)

Particles are tied to each other
The tie provides a pseudo-bond between the particles Result in enhanced shear strength

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Portrayal of Basic Mechanism

Rankines stress state theory
Two-dimensional element of cohesionless soil
Applied large uniaxial stress
Inequilibrium conditions Mohrs stress circle intersects the strength envelope of soil

Equal biaxial stress

Compression of the element

Anisotropic stress
1 > 3 Failure of the element
Lateral strains reach critical level Triaxial compression test

3 = K a 1

K a = tan 2 ( 45 / 2 )

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Portrayal of Basic Mechanism

Rankines stress state theory
Anisotropic stress
Prevention of failure of the soil element
Increase 3 Decrease lateral deformation

Place a reinforcement in the direction of 3

Interaction of soil and reinforcement
Develops friction forces along the reinforcement Tensile force - Integration of the frictional forces Inhibit free lateral expansion of soil element Generation of compression forces

Development of the mobilization of tensile stress is governed by the condition of associated slippage A hypothetical plate boundary to prevent lateral expansion

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Portrayal of Basic Mechanism

Restrained dilatancy (Bassett and Last, 1978)
Dilatancy
Expansion in volume during shearing Particles rolling over each other

Restrained dilatancy
Rolling of particles prohibited by the reinforcement Restriction of the inherent rolling
Larger mobilization of the shear strength

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Components of Reinforced Soil

Reinforced Soil Soil or Fill Matrix

Local soil Borrowed soil Suitability of the soil for reinforced soil structure

Reinforcement
Steel Aluminium Rubber Concrete Glass Fibre-wood Thermoplastics Strips Grids Sheets Mats Ropes

Facing (optional)
Steel Aluminium Rubber Concrete Glass Fibre-wood Thermoplastics Bricks Wrap Modular Block Continuous

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Soil or Fill Matrix

Choice of fill matrix
Type of structure Stability conditions
Short-term (constructional) or long-term (post-constructional) stability

Physico-chemical properties of material Economy

Type of structure
Vertically faced reinforced soil structure vs Embankment structures
Quality of fill should be better in the former Why?
Stability will be governed by the soil-reinforcement friction bond
Composition, density and gradation of fill

Reinforcement in embankment structures is used to improve the existing marginal fill

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Soil or Fill Matrix

Choice of cohesionless soil in reinforced soil structure
Densely compacted soil is preferable Why?
Higher volumetric expansion during shear Enhanced dilatancy
Higher friction strength mobilization at soil-reinforcement interface

Soils having higher void ratio are well drained Advantage?

Effective normal stress transfer at soil-reinforcement interface is immediate Negligible lag between vertical loading and shear stress transfer

Behavior is mostly elastic under working load conditions Advantage?

Negligible post-construction movement due to internal yielding and readjustment of particles
Internal yielding of soil is mostly associated with plastic behavior

Non-corrosive to reinforcing materials

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Soil or Fill Matrix

Choice cohesive soil in reinforced soil structure
Poorly drained Disadvantage?
Excess pore-pressure during construction phase results in short-term instability

No frictional component in the soil Disadvantage?

Soil-reinforcement interface adhesion is independent of vertical load Increasing the height of the structure does not aid in added strength mobilization

Behavior is elasto-plastic or plastic Disadvantage?

Enhanced probability of post-construction movement and creep deformation

Corrosive towards reinforcing materials

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Soil or Fill Matrix

Local c- soil in reinforced soil structure
Compromise between a pure cohesionless and cohesive soils
Benefits of cohesionless soils Economic availability of cohesive soils

Minimum specification for the fill soil (US DOT, 1978)

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Soil or Fill Matrix

Fly ash in reinforced soil structure
Coal-ash from thermal power plants due to incineration of coal
Bottom ash Collected at bottom of furnace Fly ash Collected from tall-height chimneys through mechanical or electrostatic precipitators (~ 90% of coal ash) Stabilized fly ash used as light-weight fill in in embankment construction
Placed in layers and are compacted by vibratory plate rollers

Strength of reinforced fly-ash is significantly higher than unreinforced conditions (Gupta, 1995)
Can be used as reinforcing fills

Main problem
Considerable loss of strength submergence (Boddu, Boddu, 2002; 2002; Shankar, 2003) 2003)

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Reinforcement
Strip reinforcement
Flexible linear elements
Thickness : 3-9 mm Breadth : 40-120 mm

Plain, grooved or ribbed Materials

Metals
Galvanized steel Aluminum-Magnesium alloy Chrome Stainless steel
Check for durability against corrosion

Bamboo Polymers Glass-fibre reinforced plastics

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Reinforcement
Grid reinforcement
Flexible elements made up of transverse and longitudinal members
Transverse member run parallel to the face or free-edge of the structure
Act as anchors and passive reinforcements Stiffer than the longitudinal members

Longitudinal members
High modulus of elasticity and not susceptible to creep

Materials
Metals Punched Polymers
Uniaxial Biaxial

Geogrids

Reinforced retaining wall Foundation beds Railways and roadway subgrade Embankment foundations

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Reinforcement
Grid reinforcement
Manufacturing of polymer geogrids

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Reinforcement
Sheet reinforcement
Galvanized steel, textile fabric or expanded metal Geotextiles Textile fabrics
Most common nowadays Porous
Permeability in the range of coarse gravel to fine sand

Manufacturing
Woven from continuous monofilament fibers Staple fibers laid in random pattern and mechanically entangled Non-woven

Fibers may be bonded or interlocked

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Reinforcement
Sheet reinforcement
Advantages of geofabrics
High tensile strength up to 5000 kN/m Highly flexible Large surface area
Higher force transfer from soil to reinforcement Lesser anchorage required

Nearly unaffected by large settlements

High durability (when not exposed to sunlight for long duration)

Major disadvantage
Sufficient deformation is required to mobilize the tensile strength of the fabric
Deformation requirement can be reduced by pre-stretching
Similar to prestressed concrete members

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Reinforcement
Anchor reinforcement
Flexible linear elements with distortions at the end

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Facing
Facing in reinforced soil structures
Required for vertical or near-vertical structures Main purpose
Retains the soil between the reinforcement in the immediate vicinity to the edge of the structure

Does not affect the overall stability of the structure

Affect the local stability Should be able to adopt to deformations without distortions and introduction of stresses

Materials
Galvanized steel, Stainless steel, Aluminium, Bricks, Precast concrete panels, Precast concrete slabs, Geotextiles, Geogrids, Plastics, Glass-reinforced plastics, Timber
Metal and precast concrete panels are mostly used
Ease in handling and assembling

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Facing
Metal facing
Mild steel, Galvanized steel or Aluminum
Same property as the reinforcement strips

Facing is semi-elliptical
Continuous horizontal joint along one edge

Holes are provided for bolting of reinforcing elements Very flexible

Can adapt to significant deformation

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Facing
Concrete Panel Facing
Cruciform shaped
Vertical dowel-groove system to accommodate other adjacent panels
Dowels allow for restricted lateral and rotational movement
Renders the entire facing structure as flexible

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Facing
Concrete Panel Facing
Various architectural forms are created

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CE 641 Lecture 1: Introductory Session

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Thank You for Patient Hearing