LITERATURE REVIEW : SOIL REINFORCEMENT

Group 2: Muhammad Farhan Gul bin Habib Gul ( P-RM0002/18), Siti Shamsiah Bt Hashim Baki
(S-RM0074/16), Hanis bt Kamis (P-RM0009/17), Nur Anisah binti Muhammad Othman (P-RM0008/17)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
CONTENTS
1.0 GENERAL TYPES OF SOIL .............................................................................................. 1
2.0 SOIL REINFORCEMENT ,MATERIALS AND ITS APPLICATION ............................. 1
2.1 General Definition ........................................................................................................... 1
2.2 Materials ......................................................................................................................... 2
2.2Reviews on Application of Geosynthetics Material as Soil Reinforcement ..................... 3
2.2.1 GeoTextile................................................................................................................. 3
2.2.2 GeoGrid..................................................................................................................... 3
2.2.3 GeoCell ..................................................................................................................... 4
2.2.4 GeoNet ...................................................................................................................... 4
3.0 CONCLUSION .................................................................................................................... 4

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1.0 GENERAL TYPES OF SOIL

Soils categorised by their grain size, soil particles are classified as cobbles, gravel, sand, silt
and clay. Grains having diameters in the range of 4.75mm to 76.2mm are called gravel. If the
grains are visible to the naked eye, but are less than about 4.75mm in size the soil is described
as sand. The lower limit of visibility of grains for the naked eyes is about 0.075mm. Soil
grains ranging from 0.075mm to 0.002mm are termed as silt and those that are finer than
0.002mm as clay USCS (Budhu,2000).

2.0 SOIL REINFORCEMENT ,MATERIALS AND ITS APPLICATION

2.1 General Definition

Soil + reinforcement = reinforced soil
Hejazi et. a.l (2011) defined soil reinforcement as a technique to improve the
engineering characteristics of soil.The concept of soil reinforcement is an ancient technique
and is demonstrated abundantly in nature by animals, birds, and the action of tree roots.
These techniques are known had existed in the fifth and fourth millennia B.C. (Jones, 1985).
Used for the improvement of certain desired properties of soil such as bearing capacity, shear
strength (c and ϕ), permeability, etc. Reinforcement also consists of incorporating certain
materials with some desired properties into other material which lack those properties (Hejazi
et al, 2011). Vidal (1969) firstly developed and demonstrated that introduction of reinforcing
elements in a soil mass increases the shear resistance of the medium.

At present, the soil reinforcement technique is well established and is used in various
applications such as improving bearing capacity, filter, and drainage control. reinforcing soil
mass also improve its stability, increase its bearing capacity, and reduce settlements and
lateral deformation (Prabakar, 2004, Binici, 2005, Yarbasi, 2007). General application of
reinforced soil are for slope failure repairs,slope cutting repairs, steep slopes embankments
and bunds, widening of slope crest, bridge abutments and wing walls, road and railway
embankments (Patil.et al. 2016) and many more possibilities

2.2 Materials

There are two basic materials used in the construction of reinforced soil. First is soil
or fill matrix using natural or synthetic fibers. Secondly, reinforcement or anchor system
using mandmade material known as Geosynthetic material.

Fiber reinforced soil behaves as a composite material in which fibers of relatively

high tensile strength are embedded in a matrix of soil. Mainly, the use of random discrete
flexible fibers mimics the behavior of plant roots and contributes to the stability of soil mass
by adding strength to the near-surface soils in which the effective stress is low Hejaziet. a.l
(2011).Natural fibers are more environmentally friendly materials. Fibres commonly used are
from Coconut,sisal, palm, jute,flax, Barely straw, bamboo and cane. Synthetic or man-made
fibers are Polypropylene (PP), Polyester (PET) , Polyethylene (PE), glass fibers, Nylon fiber,
Steel fibers and Polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fibers (Hejazi et al, 2011)

Geosynthetic material material are widely used nowadays due to its simple application,easy
handling and effective properties. Geosynthetics are manufactured materials, technological
developments of the polymer and engineering plastics industries that continuously
incorporated in geosynthetics products, enhancing relevant engineering properties of these
materials (Palmeira et al,2008)

Common types of geosynthetics are geotextiles (particularly woven geotextiles), geogrids and
geocells. Geotextiles are continuous sheets of woven, nonwoven, knitted or stitch-bonded
fibers or yarns. The sheets are flexible , permeable and generally have the appearance of a
fabric. Geogrids have a uniformly distributed array of apertures between their longitudinal
and transverse elements. That allow direct contact between soil particles on either side of the
sheet. Geocells are relatively thick, three-dimensional networks constructed from strips of
polymeric sheet. These strips are joined together to form interconnected cells that are infilled
with soil and sometimes concrete (Palmeira et al,2008). Geonets are similar to geogrids but

2
have thinner member sand angular apertures ,not square or rectangular but resembling
parallelograms (Patil.et al.2016)

d) Geonet

Figure 1: Geosynthetics commonly used for soil reinforcement (Source: Bathurst 2007 and
Patil.et al.2016)

2.2 Reviews on Application of Geosynthetics Material as Soil Reinforcement

Soil is strong in compression but weak in tension. Reinforcement which has high tensile
strength could be effective in counteracting materials which are weak in tension.Thus,
including layers of reinforcement (geosynthetics) in soil could improve their tensile strength.
The reinforced soil is considered to have a better load carrying capacity and higher tensile
strength than non-reinforced soil. Geosynthetics (Geotextile, Geogrid, Geonet,
Geomembrane, Geocomposite, Geocell) are manmade products.They are flexible and planar
(sheet-like). They are manufactured from synthetic polymeric materials and sometimes from
natural materials. They find use in Geotechnical engineering as aseparator, filters, drains,
reinforcement, hydraulic barriers, protectors and erosion control system.Below are some
reviews on application of Geosynthetics material as soil reinforcement.

2.2.1 GeoTextile

Investigation study has been carried out with different thickness configuration of the two
soils and three types of woven and non-woven geotextiles, having different physical and
mechanical properties (Ullagaddi and Nagaraj,2013). Based on experimental work it infers
that there is improvement in CBR Value and therefore increases bearing capacity. Due to
increase in bearing capacity, thickness of soil layer can be reduced to serve the same
functioning. Based on U.S .corps and IRC method, woven geotextile found to be more
effective in increasing CBR value than non-woven geotextile

2.2.2 GeoGrid

Bearing capacity of four different types of soil and placing geogrids determined at different
depths (Khan et, al., 2017). Their investigation included basic property of different types of
soils, such as Red soil (RS), Black cotton soil (BC), Laterite soil (LS) and Alluvial soil (AS)
and increase the bearing capacity by using Bi-axial geogrid.They found that bearing capacity
of Laterite soil, Black cotton soil and Alluvial soil is increased when the geogrid is placed at
the top and bearing capacity of Red soil is increased when the geogrid is placed at
middle.There is continuously an increase in the performance of the soils in the drycondition.

3
Used of geogrid as reinforcement to the poor soils to increase the maximum load carrying
capacity.

2.2.3 GeoCell

Rajagopal et, al.(2012) presented a “Studies on geosynthetic (geocell) -reinforced road

pavement structures” which says that by using geosynthetic material there is improvement in
strength and stiffness and shows better performance under repeated loads(fatigue
condition).Under monotonic loading, modulus improvement factor is higher.

2.2.4 GeoNet

Study on the effect of soil reinforcement using geonet on the shear strength, consolidation
and swelling of silty soil by Nareeman and Fattah(2012) concluded that settlement of
specimen when placing geonet is lower than specimenwithout reinforcement and the shear
strength of the soil reinforced with a geonet layer placed at inclination of 45 degree is
improved more than the soil reinforced with horizontal geonet layer especially in the angle of
internal friction. They found out that both compression and swelling indices for reinforced
soil are much less than those for unreinforced soil. As a result, consolidation settlement
decreases in the reinforced soil becausegeonetlayer works as reinforcement layer to improve
the soil compressibility and prohibits soil movement.

3.0 CONCLUSION

There are some criteria that Geosynthetics was one of the application that need to be consider
as good soil reinforcement which is :

1. Innovative solution to solve difficult problems economically and expediently.

2. Enables use of local materials- sustainable solution.
3. Use of Unskilled labours.
4. Easy installation
5. Does not require heavy equipment.
6. It reduces maintenance cost and increases life.
7. Quality can be controlled since it’s factory-made.

4
4.0 BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. A.K.Choudhary, K.S.Gill and J.N.Jha (2011) “Improvement in CBR values of

expansive soil sub-grades using geo-synthetics” IGC J-233.

2. AmbikaKuitya, Tapas Kumar Roy, “ Utilization of geogrid mesh for improving the
soft subgrade layer with waste material mix compositions”,2ndConference of
Transportation Research Group of India (2nd CTRG).

3. Bestun J. Nareeman and Mohammed Y. Fattah (2012) ‘’Effect of Soil Reinforcement

on Shear Strength and Settlement of Cohesive-Frictional Soil’’ Int. J. of GEOMATE,
Sept., 2012, Vol. 3, No. 1 (Sl. No. 5), pp. 308-313, Geotec., Const. Mat. &Env.

4. Budhu, M., (2000), Soil Mechanics and Foundations, John Wiley and Sons, U.S
America

5. G.L SivaKumar, “ An Introduction to Soil reinforcement and geosynthetics”,

universities press,Hyderabad

6. Hejazi S. M, Sheikhzadeh M., Abtahi S. M, Ali Zadhoush (2011) A simple review of

soil reinforcement by using natural and synthetic fibers, Department of Textile
Engineering, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan 84156-83111, Iran

7. Holtz, R. D., Christopher, B. R., and Berg, R. R. (1997) Geosynthetic Engineering,

BiTech Publishers, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada., 451 pp
8. J.N.Mandal,”Geosynthetics world”, new age international publishers, New Delhi

9. Jones, C.J. 1985, Earth reinforcement and soil structure. Butterworths advanced series
in geotechnicalengineering.

10. K. Rajagopal, S. Chandramouli, AnushaParayil& K. Iniyan (2012) “Studies on

geosynthetic (geocell) -reinforced road pavement structures’’ GEOSYNTHETICS
ASIA 2012, 5th Asian Regional Conference on Geosynthetics

11. P.B.Ullagaddi,T.K.Nagara,” Investigation on geosynthetic reinforced two layered soil

system “, Missouri University of Science and Technology,2013

12. R. ZiaieMoayed and M. Nazari,”Effect of Utilization of Geosynthetic of Reducing the

Required Thickness of Subbase Layer of a Two Layered Soil”,World Academy of
Science, Engineering and Technology, International Journal of Environmental,
Chemical, Ecological, Geological and Geophysical Engineering Vol:5, No:1, 2011.

13. Sarika B. Dhule and S.S.Valunjkar (2011) “Improvement of flexible pavement with
use of geo-grid” EJGE Vol.16.

14. Vaishali S. Gor, L. S. Thakur, Dr. K.R. Biyani,”study the typical characteristic of
expansive soil with geotextile and cushion materials”,Missouri University of Science
and Technology,2013
15. Vidal H. The principle of reinforced earth. High Res Rec 1969;282:1–16.

16. Binici H, Aksogan O, Shah T. Investigation of fiber reinforced mud brick as a

building material. Construct Build Mater 2005;19:313–8.

17. Yarbasi N, Kalkan E, Akbulut S. Modification of freezing–thawing properties of

granular soils with waste additives. Col Reg Sci Technol 2007;48:44–54.\

18. Prabakar J, Dendorkar N, Morchhale K. Influence of fly ash on strength behavior of

typical soils. Construct Build Mater 2004;18:263–7.

19. Bathurst, R.J., Miyata, Y., Nernheim, A. and Allen, T.M. (2008) “Refinement of K-
Stiffness Method for Geosynthetic Reinforced Soil Walls”, Geosynthetics
International,15(5) (in press).

20. Palmeira, Ennio & Tatsuoka, Fumio & Bathurst, Richard & E Stevenson, Peter &
Zornberg, Jorge. (2008). Advances in Geosynthetics Materials and Applications for
Soil Reinforcement and Environmental Protection Works. Electronic Journal of
Geotechnical Engineering.

21. Prashant Patil, Ipupu Mena, Shubham Goski, Yogesh Urs (2016) Int. Journal of
Engineering Research and Application. ISSN : 2248-9622, Vol. 6, Issue 8, ( Part -2),
pp.25-31