Twenty years of reinforced earth laboratory testing

Reinforced earth in its contemporary form was invented in 1966 by the French engineer Henri Vidal. Basically it is a soil mass strengthened by the inclusion of reinforcement material able to withstand tensile stresses which otherwise might cause internal rupture within the soil. The concept of reinforced earth is analogous to reinforced concrete; in both cases the mechanical properties of the original material are improved by the inclusion of reinforcement resisting tensile stress.