Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
Unit Cell Testing of Reinforced Soils
Hoe I. Ling
Columbia University, New York, New York, U.S.A.
1 BASIC PRINCIPLE OF SOIL REINFORCEMENT
Henri Vidal, the person who proposed the principle of reinforced earth (Vidal,
1969), described reinforced earth as “a material formed by combining earth and
reinforcement.” According to his definition, “earth” covers all types of ground
found in nature, or produced by physical or chemical means, including both
granular soils and earth that exhibits some slight cohesion. He defined
“reinforcement” as all
linear components that can withstand major tensile
stresses.
Since the introduction of the principle of reinforced earth, construction has
advanced much faster than research and theoretical development. Ingold (1982)
summarized the early development of soil reinforcement. Described below are
the most common theories proposed for reinforced soil and some of the major
experimental studies. Reinforced cohesionless soil is described first and then
reinforced cohesive soil.
1.1 Pseudocohesion Concept
If bonding by friction is assumed at the soil-reinforcement interface, reinforced
soil has a greater strength than its unreinforced counterpart, as shown in
Fig. 1
.
Vidal proposed that reinforcement assisted in introducing a pseudocohesion to
the sand which initially possesses no true cohesion.
Schlosser and Long (1973) conducted a more detailed study on reinforced
sand using a cylindrical soil specimen reinforced with circular discs of aluminum
foil using a triaxial apparatus. Different reinforcement spacings were used in their
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