MODULE 4

RETAINING WALL ANALYSIS

Types of Retaining Walls.
•Rankine’s Theory of Earth Pressure.
•Coulomb’s Theory of Earth Pressure.
• Stability of Retaining Wall
 INTRODUCTION
• DEFINITION?
• LATERAL EARTH PRESSURES ARE :
• are those imparted by soils onto vertical or near
vertical structures.
• Include both normal and shear pressures.
• Are direct result of horizontal stresses in the soil.
TYPE S OF RETAINING WALL

• Gravity wall
• Embedded wall
• Reinforced and anchored wall
GRAVITY WALLS

–Masonry walls – mass concrete, RC walls – suitable for wall up to 6m in height,

brickwork or stonework.(< 1.5m) sometimes key is added to improve resistance to
sliding.
GRAVITY WALLS
• –Counterfort walls – RC gravity walls with tension stiffeners (counterforts)
connecting to the back of the wall slab and base, to reduce bending & shearing
stress, for high wall, heavily surcharged backfill & high lateral earth pressure
will occur. (5-10m)
• –Buttressed walls – similar to counterfort wall but stiffeners placed in front of
the wall.
GRAVITY WALLS

CRIB WALL – pre-cast concrete unit and the space Gabion walls- a basket made from galvanised steel
filled with free-draining materials. mesh filled with stone rubbles or cobbles to provide
free draining wall units.
EMBEDDED WALLS
• Driven sheet-pile walls
• Braced or propped walls
• Contiguous bored piles
• Secant bored piles
• Diaphragm walls
 EMBEDDED WALLS

Braced or propped
retaining wall – trenches
Driven sheet pile- Driven sheet piles are thin interlocking steel sheets
used to construct a continuous barrier in the ground. Interlock is
typically achieved by clutching the edge of one pile into the previous
pile. Temporary retaining wall and cofferdam.
EMBEDDED WALLS

Contiguous bored piles - Piles are installed, in a sequence

determined by boring conditions. The wall is not watertight
and measures may be required to prevent fines wash-out
between the piles. Each pile is reinforced with a cage, designed
to resist bending moments and shear. Pile diameters of 350-
1200mm are offered, retaining up to 15m.
EMBEDDED WALLS

Secant bored piles - Alternate soft piles are formed using either a
slow-gain concrete or a workable grout mix. The installation
sequence is determined by ground conditions, but is normally on
a hit and miss 2 or 3 piles basis. After a sufficient initial curing
period (2-4 days) and once each alternate pile is formed, the
reinforced ‘male’ piles are installed. The male and female piles
overlap by approximately 75-100mm. The secant between hard
and soft piles ensures that water seepage is minimised and fines
wash-out is prevented. The interlocking secant wall is not
watertight; however water flow is greatly reduced. Similar pile
sizes and retained heights to contiguous piling can be offered.
 EMBEDDED WALLS
• Diaphragm Wall is generally reinforced concrete
wall constructed in the ground using Under slurry
technique which was developed in Europe.
• The technique involves excavating a narrow
trench that is kept full of an engineered fluid of
slurry.
• Walls of thickness between 300 and 1200 mm can
be formed in this way up to a depths of 45 meters
• Commonly used in congested areas, Can be
Installed in close proximity to existing structure,
Practically suited for deep basements, Used in
conjunction with “Top Down” construction
technique.
 REINFORCED AND ANCHORED EARTH
WALLS
Reinforced earth wall- consist of composite
material formed by cohesion less soil and flexible
metal reinforcing strips. The earth and the
reinforcement are combined through friction.
Suitable for highway and bridge grade
separations, railroads and mass transit systems,
waterfronts, airports, loading docks, industrial
facilities and commercial and residential
developments. They are also used in response
to difficult design conditions such as very high
structures, restricted space
REINFORCED AND ANCHORED EARTH
WALLS

Ground anchor - to prevent deep seated failures, as

well as a form of erosion control
 REINFORCED AND ANCHORED EARTH
WALLS

Soil nailing - technique that can be used as a

remedial measure to treat unstable natural soil
slopes or as a construction technique that allows
the safe over-steepening of new or existing soil
slopes. To strengthen embankment and retaining
walls.
Factors affecting lateral earth pressure

• Soil physical characteristics

• Time-dependent shear strength characteristics
• Soil-structure interface interaction
• Deformation characteristics
• External loading