2009

Retaining Wall for Highway Embankment

05-CTE-05, 05-CTE-21, 05-CTE-26, 05-CTE-27
Initial Study Report on Reinforced Earth
“

UET This document is a pre-design, initial study report on the final year
project of a group of four members undertaking the undergraduate
Group one studies of Transportation Engineering, titled as Design of Reinforced
Group email Earth retaining wall for highway embankments. The report consists of
the basic idea of what the reinforced earth is and how it is comparable
umairdurrani@hotmail.com to other methods of strengthening the highway embankments. It will
be followed by other report(s) regarding the design.
Final year Project
 Initial Study Report on Reinforced Earth Retaining Wall
for Highway Embankment
TABLE OF CONTENTS

Why highway embankment is needed to be strengthened? ___________________________ 3

What is done to strengthen the embankment? _____________________________________ 3
Which method is the best? ______________________________________________________ 4
What is a Reinforced Earth? _____________________________________________________ 5
Introduction to reinforced soil structure ___________________________________________ 6
The Reinforced Earth Retaining Wall ______________________________________________ 6
Mechanism Of Reinforced Soil ___________________________________________________ 7
Shear Box Analogy Concept _____________________________________________________ 8
What can be used as a Reinforcement? __________________________________________ 10
1. Geosynthetics _______________________________________________________________ 10
2. Reinforcing strips _____________________________________________________________ 10

Table Of Figures
Figure A External stabilization ................................................................................................................................6
Figure B Internally stabilized reinforced soil...........................................................................................................6
Figure C (a) Element of unreinforced soil, (b) Element of reinforced soil ................................................................7
Figure D Slopes showing failure surface .................................................................................................................8
Figure E shear box test on unreinforced and reinforced soil ................................................................................. 10

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NEW WORDS
Reinforced Earth PART 1 Introduction
A composite material
having facing panels,
soil reinforcement Why highway embankment is needed to be
strips and select fill as
strengthened?
basic components.
A highway embankment is a structure (usually made up of earth in
Pakistan) which has a sufficient height to separate the pavement
Highway Embankment built over it from the ground level. The reasons why it is necessary
to make it strong are given below:
A raised earthen
structure used for • It has to bear the forces of water during the flood.
increasing the level of
pavement from the • It has to bear huge loading of traffic with large number of
ground due to a number repetitions.
of factors.
• To avoid the Land sliding.

• Over-burden

• Dead and Live Load Surcharge

• Earth Pressure

• Hydrostatic Pressure

• Seismic Loads

• Construction Loads etc…..

What is done to strengthen the embankment?

There are a large number of solutions to the problem of
strengthening an earthen embankment. These include:

• Giving slopes on both sides of embankment when

embankment height is sufficiently high.

• Ability of Plant Roots to Strengthen Soil

• Influence of Short Polymeric Fibers on Crack Development in
Clays
• Recycled Plastic Soil Nails Provide Slope Stabilization Project
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 • In-situ densification of soils.
• Ground improvement and modification.
• Reinforced soil.
• Grouting.
• Grading and other soil improvement methods

Sheet piling Sheet piling may be composed of steel, timber or concrete piles, with each pile
being linked to the next to form a continuous wall. Sheet pile walls are sufficiently
watertight for most practical purposes.

Grouting covers different injection techniques of special liquid or slurry materials called
grouts into the ground for the purpose of improving the soil or rock.

Muckshift can be described as the excavation and exchange of unsuitable soil regions by
more qualified ones. It is a kind of large scale land clearance.

Sandbagging Sandbags can be used for preventing a leach ate discharge downstream of the
embankment site.

Geosynthetical structures

Rock facing / rock riprap slope surface consists of rock or cobble fills, no special slope
surface treatment is necessary. Downstream slopes with outer sand and gravel should be
protected against erosion especially during flood.

Which method is the best?

Most of these methods work in different problems in different situations and therefore none
can be said as best. Another reason for this is that other than reinforcing the earth and making
a composite material called reinforced earth, all the above mentioned methods require having
slopes of embankment for an economical design.

There can be a situation where one wants to have an embankment with angle of repose 90
degrees. This can be achieved by employing the reinforced earth concept for the embankment.

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PART 2 Reinforced Earth

What is a Reinforced Earth?

A Reinforced Soil System (RSS) is a composite material which has the following basic
components;

• Facing Panel (Commonly made of concrete, steel plate, wire mesh, block etc…)

• Soil Reinforcement Strips (Galvanized steel, geotextiles, etc)

• Select Fill (Cohesionless soil meeting specific defined requirements)

The frictional forces created when combining the select fill with the flexible metallic or non-
metallic reinforcing strips result in a robust structural material, commonly known as Reinforced
Earth. The strips are attached to a front facing panel, which may be manufactured from
concrete or steel. The facing material selected is generally dependent on it having sufficient
durability to accommodate the design life of the structure, and also meet the aesthetic needs
of the project. The Reinforced Earth monolithic mass acts cohesively and supports it’s own
weight and any applied loads which may include all the forces as described in part 1 of this
report. The forces induced in the steel strips can be precisely calculated and depend on ;-

• Strip geometry

• Strip frictional characteristics

• Vertical soil pressure on the strip

• Strength and stiffness characteristics on the strip

Importantly, the durability of the structure relies heavily on the ability of the soil reinforcement
strip to maintain a level of tensile strength in the operational environment for the duration of
the structure’s design life. The strip made up of steel, if used, is therefore designed to include a
sacrificial steel thickness, which predicts the amount of strip corrosion throughout the design
life of the structure. This is achieved by controlling the environment in which the strip will be
operating. The select fill, whilst having certain physical requirements that ensure it is activated
in forming part of the structural mass, is also required to have electrochemical characteristics
that also ensures that corrosion of the strip is not excessive or beyond the allowance made in
the strip design. Furthermore, the strip is coated with zinc galvanizing for further protection.
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The final length and frequency of the soil reinforcement strips is a function of the combinations
of geometric and physical properties of the structure and the applied design loads. Whilst the
facing to the Reinforced Earth wall technically does not take on a structural role in support of
the loads, it obviously forms an important part in the wall in preventing the erosion of backfill,
supporting the soil reinforcement and weathering the local environment. Typically, for roads
projects, concrete is the only economical material that can achieve the necessary 100 year
design life without the need for any continuous maintenance or repair. The facing also forms
the most visual aspect of the structure and is often required to have some aesthetic appeal,
particularly in urban areas. Concrete can lend itself readily to the provision of architectural and
aesthetic requirements. The facing panels can however, often be a complex component to
manufacture as each facing panel may have very individual characteristics with respect to its
geometry, finish or cast-in inclusions.

Introduction to reinforced soil structure

Reinforced soil structures are fundamentally
different from conventional earth retaining
systems which are externally stabilized in that
they utilize a different mechanism for support
and are internally stabilized. An externally
stabilized system uses an external structural wall
against which stabilizing forces are mobilized, for
example, gravity retaining walls and excavations Figure A External stabilization
supported with strutting (fig A)
An internally stabilized system involves
reinforcements installed within & extending
beyond the potential failure mass (tied back,
reinforced soil walls, and soil-nailed
excavations). With this system, the interactions
between the reinforcements and soil (to
mobilize the tensile capacity of closely spaced
reinforcing elements) eliminate the need for a
structural wall or a support (figure B)

The Reinforced Earth Retaining Wall Figure B Internally stabilized reinforced soil

According to Reinforced Earth company,

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 ®
Reinforced Earth retaining walls are gravity structures consisting of alternating layers of
granular backfill and reinforcing strips with a modular precast concrete facing. They are used
extensively in transportation and other civil engineering applications. Because of its high load-
carrying capacity, Reinforced Earth is ideal for very high or heavy-loaded retaining walls.

The inherent flexibility of the composite material makes it possible to build on compressible
foundation soils or unstable slopes. These performance advantages combined with low
materials volume and a rapid, predictable and easy construction process make Reinforced Earth
an extremely cost-effective solution over conventional retaining structures.

Mechanism Of Reinforced Soil

The mechanism of reinforced soil can be explained in simple terms considering an element of
cohesionless soil shown in figure C(a) . If a vertical stress is applied on the soil it deforms both
laterally and vertically and reaches a new equilibrium. If reinforcement in the form of plane
sheet is introduced in the sample before the application of vertical stress on the sample,

Figure C (a) Element of unreinforced soil, (b) Element of reinforced soil

deformations are restrained due to the interaction b/w the soil and the reinforcement to some
extent as in figure C (b). introduction of reinforcement generates inward lateral stress, which
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 resists the shear stresses that are generated when a vertical stress (sigma 1) is applied. If there
is no significant deformation, the lateral stress is equal to Ko times the vertical stress and this
condition prevails at higher vertical stresses also.

The shear stress at the interface of soil and reinforcement generates strains in the
reinforcement and tensile force is mobilized in the reinforcement. If the reinforcement force
exceeds the tensile capacity of sheet reinforcement, rupture failure occurs. Secondly, it is likely
that a slip occurs b/w soil & reinforcement if deformation are high or interface is smooth. These
two conditions viz tesile failure & pullout failure need to be examined to ensure stability of
reinforced soil structures.

Shear Box Analogy Concept

These shear box test simulates the mechanism and behavior of both unreinforced and
reinforced soils.

Figure on the left shows slope of unreinforced soil and on the right shows slope of reinforced soil.

Figure D Slopes showing failure surface

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What can be used as a Reinforcement?

1. Geosynthetics

ASTM has defined a geosynthetic as a planar product manufactured from a polymeric material
used with soil, rock, earth, or other geotechnical-related material as an integral part of a civil
engineering project, structure, or system.

Geotextiles: A geotextile is a permeable geosynthetic made of textile materials Geotextile in

fabric form are being used as a basal reinforcement of embankment and fills on the ground

Geogrids: Geogrids are primarily used for reinforcement; they are formed by a regular network
of tensile elements with apertures of sufficient size to interlock with surrounding fill material.
These are made up of High Density Polyethylene (HDPE) and interconnected longitudinal and
transverse Member. These are made from sheets of polymer by punching holes and stretching

Figure E shear box test on unreinforced and reinforced soil

the sheets in one or two direction.

Geocomposits: Geotextiles and related products such as nets and grids can be combined with
geomembranes and other synthetics to take advantage of the best attributes of each
component. These products are called geocomposites.

2. Reinforcing strips

Reinforced members are composed of thin wide steel or aluminum strips called ties. The
flexibility of reinforcing strips and their tensile strengths are essential elements. The reinforcing
strips are made of mild galvanized steel, stainless steel or aluminum alloy. Bolts and nuts for
fixing the ties are made of the same material as that of the reinforcing strips. The durability of
the strips depends on the chemical and electro-chemical behavior of these metals when in
contact with soil particles

Works Cited
Introduction to Soil Reinforcement and Geosynthetics [Book] / auth. Babu Visakumar. - to be
added : to be added, to be added. - Vol. to be added.
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