A Report on the History and Development of Soil Reinforcement

The most commonly obtainable material of construction is soil. Construction on or with weak soil is dangerous because such soil is prone to low bearing capacity, high settlement and low shear strength. One of the methods to overcome such problems is inclusion of some materials with certain desirable properties in soil. Soil reinforcement can be defined as a process of physical inclusions to improve some engineering properties of soil viz.increasing its strength, bearing capacity and stability, and decreasing settlements and lateral deformation. A variety of materials – from plant parts to fibres of different kinds to metals and polymers have been used as effective soil reinforcing materials over the past decades. This paper reviews the history and development of soil reinforcement, both natural and synthetic, in different applications.