This document discusses reinforced soil retaining walls. It provides an overview of the components and construction process. Reinforced soil uses soil reinforced with linear strips that can bear large tensile stresses. Retaining walls hold earth and other materials in a vertical position. Reinforced soil retaining walls were developed from the idea of reinforcing sandcastles with pine needles. They have load transfer mechanisms that use friction between the soil and reinforcement to resist shear stresses. Components include soil, facing panels, reinforcement and geosynthetics. Construction involves compacting layers of backfill soil and placing horizontal reinforcement strips. Reinforced soil retaining walls provide benefits like reduced lateral thrust, thin wall elements, simple and fast construction, and seismic resistance.

1. DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING
GOVT. POLYTECHNIC MANESAR, GURGAON
HARYANA
Reinforced Soil Retaining Walls
Study Work
Guided By-
Mr. M.P. Singh
Submitted by-
Mohit Goyal
13007070060

2. Reinforced soil• Reinforced earth is a combination of earth and linear reinforcing strips that are
capable of bearing large tensile stresses.
• The reinforcement provided by these strips enable the mass to resist the
tension in a way which the earth alone could not. The source of this resistance
to tension is the internal friction of soil, because the stresses that are created
within the mass are transferred from soil to the reinforcement strips by
friction.

3. Retaining walls
• Retaining walls are used to retain earth or
other materials which have the tendency to
slide and repose at a particular inclination.
• They provide lateral support to the earthfill,
embankments or other materials in order to
hold them in a vertical position.
• Retaining walls also have application in
buildings and bridges such as basement,
foundation wall, bridge abutment etc.

4. Idea of Reinforced Soil
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.

5. Load Transfer Mechanism
• The flexible reinforcement interacts frictionally with the soil resisting the
shear stresses in the soil mass
• The shear stress at the interface of the soil and the reinforcement generates
strains in the reinforcement and a tensile force is mobilised in the
reinforcement
• If this tensile force exceeds the tensile capacity of the reinforcement, rupture
failure occurs – Tensile failure
• If deformations are high or if the interface is smooth, it is likely that a slip
occurs between the soil and reinforcement – Pullout Failure
• For stability, Tensile failure and Pullout failure to be examined

6. Reinforced Soil Retaining Wall (RS-RW)
Crash Barrier
Facing Panels
Geo Textiles
Reinforcement
Structural Fill

7. Evolution of RS-RW

8. Principles
• If a vertical stress (v) is applied on a soil element, it undergoes a vertical
compression (v) associated with a lateral deformation (h).
• If a reinforcement is added to the soil in the form of horizontal layers, the soil
element will be restrained against lateral deformation as it acted by a lateral
force.

9. Contd.

10. Components of RS-RW
• Soil
• Skin
• Reinforcement

11. Soil
• It should be granular, cohesion less material, not too much silt or clay having
particle size not more than 125 mm.
• Not more than 10 percent of the particles shall pass 75 micron sieve & the
earth reinforcement coefficient of friction to be either higher than or equal to
0.4 & Plasticity Index < 6.
• The soil must have a moisture content suitable for compaction.

12. Skin
• Skin is the facing element of the reinforced soil wall.
• These elements support the backfill and keeps the reinforcement at a desired
elevation in the reinforced soil wall and also protect the granular at the edge
falling off.
• Made of either metal units or precast concrete panels.

13. Reinforcement
A variety of materials can be used as reinforcing materials such as-
• Steel
• Concrete
• Glass fibre
• Wood
• Rubber
• Aluminium
• Geosynthetics

14. Construction Procedure
1. Place first row of panel/block on levelling course.

15. Contd.
2. Insert next row of panel/block, align and clamp them.

16. Contd.
3. Spread and compact backfill upto point of reinforcement.

17. Contd.
4. Lay and fasten the reinforcement.

18. Contd.
5. Spread and compact backfill upto next point of reinforcement.

19. Contd.
6. Repeat steps 2-5 until structure is completed.

20. Some Finished Structures

21. Applications
1. Roads
2. Airfields
3. Railroads
4. Embankments
5. Retaining structures

22. Benefits of using RS-RW
• Lateral thrust on the wall is almost eliminated due to the development of soil-
reinforcement interface friction.
• Thin wall element known as skin is found adequate to retain the backfill
resulting in considerable economic savings.
• Simple construction.
• Faster construction than traditional concrete walls.
• Can be built in confined areas or areas where a concrete wall is almost
impossible to be constructed.
• High seismic load resistance.
• Various shapes and forms can be made.

23. Conclusion
• Reinforced soil retaining walls have evolved as viable technique and
contributed to infrastructure in terms of speed, ease of construction, economy,
aesthetics etc.
• It is a technology that needs to be understood well in terms of its response,
construction features etc. Failures of RE walls have also been noted in a few
places due to lack of understanding of behaviour of reinforced soil walls.

24. References
1. i) Ranjan Gopal and Rao ASR “Basic and Applied Soil Mechanics”, New Age Publication
(P) Ltd., New Delhi
2. ii) Singh Harbhajan “Soil and Foundation Engineering”, Abhishek Publishers, Chandigarh
3. iii) S Mittal and JP Shukla, “Soil Testing for Engineers”, Khanna Publishers Ltd., Delhi
4. iv) BIS Codes IS 6403 (latest edition) and IS 1498 (latest edition)
5. v) Jagroop Singh, “Soil and Foundation Engineering”, Eagle Parkashan, Jalandhar
6. Vi) http://www.bayt.com/en/specialties/q/178593/in-engineering-what-is-the-meaning-of-
soil-reinforcement/
7. Vii) http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0950061811006763
8. Viii) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mechanically_stabilized_earth

25. Thank You