REINFORCED

EARTH

BY:
Abhishek Verma (130001)
Akash Singh (130003)
Amit Koul (130005)

Reinforced Earth
Defination:
Reinforced Earth is a composite material formed by
the association of frictional soil and tension resistant
elements in the form of sheets, strips, or nets of metal,
synthetic fabrics or fibre reinforced plastics.
or
Reinforced earth is a combination of earth and linear
reinforcing strips that are capable of bearing large
tensile stresses

Reinforced earth is also called as Reinforced soil.

How the idea of

Reinforced Earth came?
IT ALL BEGAN LIKE A GAME, when Henri Vidal, a
highway engineer and architect, was trying to built a
sandcastle on the beach. But the sand kept on falling
off and this led to the idea of reinforcing the
construction with pine needles. That is how the
general principle of Reinforced Earth came about.

Objectives:
Generally used in retaining walls,

embankments, quay walls, underground

structures.
this methods are opted to improve the
engineering and mechanical properties of
soil.
Because of its technical superiority and
economic advantages, reinforced earth has
become a widely used in the construction
of earth-retaining structures.
Rapid construction of land.
The techinque can result in saving the area

Practical Figures of reinforced

earth structures

Fundamental
Mechanism:

Soil has an inherently low tensile strength but a high compressive

strength. An objective of incorporating soil reinforcement is to
absorb tensile loads or shear stresses within the structure. In
absence of the reinforcement, structure my fail in shear or by
excess of the deformation.
When an axial load is applied to the reinforced soil, it generates an
axial compressive strain and lateral tensile strain this is illustrated
by model in Figure . If the reinforcement has an axial tensile
stiffness greater than that of the soil, then lateral movements of
the soil will only occur if soil can move relative to the
reinforcement. Movement of the soil, relative to the reinforcement,
will generate shear stresses at the soil/ reinforcement interface,
these shear stresses are redistributed back into the soil in the form
of internal confining stress. Due to this, the strain within the
reinforced soil mass is less than the strain in unreinforced soil for
the same amount of stresses, this is indicated in Fig 2 where hr <
h. and vr < v, provided the surface of the reinforcement is
sufficiently rough to prevent the relatively movement and the axial
tensile stiffness of reinforcement is more than that of soil

Types of
Reinforcement
Sheet reinforcement
Strip reinforcement
Geo-grid reinforcement

a) Uniaxial
b) Bi-axial
c) Triaxial

Sheet
Reinforcement
It is

be formed from metal such as galvanized

steel, fabric (textile).

These are manufactured from synthetic materials

such as polypropylene, polyester and glass
fibres.

The thickness ranging from 0.125mm to 7.5mm

These reinforcement has high tensile strength,

which can last up to 400kN/m

Sheet reinforcement

This can be constructed in two ways. They are

a)Woven made from continuous monofilament
fibres.
b)Non-woven made from staple fibres.

Practical image of sheet reinforcement:

Strip
Reinforcement

These are flexible linear members

having greater breadth than their
thickness.

Thickness usually varies from 3mm9mm & breadth is between 40mm120mm.

These strips can also be formed from

bamboo, polymers and glass fibre

Grids and Geogrids:

Reinforcing elements formed from transverse

and longitudinal members, in which the
transverse members run parallel to the face or
free edge of the structure and behave as
abutments or anchors as shown in Fig.
The main purpose is to retain the transverse
members in position. Since the transverse
members act as an abutment or anchor they
need to be stiff relative to their length. The
longitudinal members may be flexible having a
high modulus of elasticity not susceptible to
creep

Mono Oriented Geogrid

Bi-Oriented Geogrid

Reinforced
Embankments

An embankment is an artificial barrier that

typically is used to hold back water or to
support a roadway , railway, or canal.

These are man-made mounds mainly consist of

stones , rocks, and earth.

Generally, these embankments are longer than

they are in height.

Practical Image of
Embankment

Reinforced Soil
Wall

A vertical-walled structure formed by

increasing the stability of the backfill of
the retaining wall with the installation of
reinforcement materials such as
geogrids and steel strips into the backfill.

While designing a reinforcement soil wall,

we need to consider
a)External stability
b)Internal stability

Design of Reinforced Earth

Retaining Wall
External stability : It consider the reinforced structure as
whole and check the stability for sliding, overturning,
bearing/tilt and slip by considering the effects of dead loads,
other loads (live load, dynamic load etc.) and forces acting
on the structure.
Internal stability:
It cover internal mechanism ( tension and pull out failure)
such as shear within the structure , arrangement and
behavior of the reinforcement and backfill. It checks the
stability for each reinforcement layers and stability of
wedges within the reinforced fill

Modes of Failures:

Reinforced Soil Beds

A reinforced soil bed

is a composite
material composed of
stiffer materials
called reinforcement
embedded in the soil
bed .
It increases the
bearing capacity,
reducing the
differential
settlement.

My References

Reinforced Soil and it's Engineering

Applications by Swami Saran
Basic & Applied Soil Mechanics by
Gopala Rajan & A.S.R.Rao
Soil Mechanics and Foundation
Engineering (Geotechnical Engineering)
K. R. Arora

Thank
You