Reinforced earth
Under Reinforced Earth a composite of soil and is reinforcing understood. This reinforcement can be thin injection piles, steel or plastic rods (anchors, nails), friction strips, mats, grids or geotextiles , which are introduced in various ways and directions. Their demands are correspondingly different.
In the narrower sense, reinforced or reinforced earth is understood to be a form of retaining wall that was developed by the French engineer Henry Vidal in the 1960s. These are reinforcement strips laid in the ground that absorb tensile forces and transfer them into the ground through friction. Initially, the reinforcement bars consisted exclusively of steel. Because of the corrosion problems that arise, plastics are often used as reinforcement today.
In order to secure a jump in terrain through a supporting structure, the reinforced earth can be closed off by a shell made of in-situ concrete , reinforced concrete prefabricated parts or steel sheets, to which the reinforcement strips are connected.