ABSTRACT
The essence of soil reinforcement is its strengthening in the directions of potential shears. For this purpose various materials, receiving dilatant stresses developing in the soil, are introduced into the massif. Several principal schemes of soil reinforcement are employed in engineering practice. They are continuous reinforcement (soil is covered all throughout the reinforced area with the reinforcing material interspersed with backfill compacted layer by layer) and discrete reinforcement. In the case of plastic tension of the reinforcement element the soil composition in the contact layer can change from dense to that corresponding to critical density or even less. The appearance of additional stresses in the reinforced massif due to contact dilatancy is one of the factors of stability. In the absence of conditions for lateral expanding of soil between reinforcing elements the superimposition of dilatant stresses on the stresses active in the soil causes an increase of stress at grain contact point.
