UCE1702- Structural Design and Drawing

Unit- I
P. Sangeetha/ASP-Civil UCE1702 – Unit I

Dr. P.Sangeetha
Associate Professor
Department of Civil Engineering
SSN College of Engineering
 Topics to be Covered

Session – 1 & 2

Introduction – Reinforced concrete Retaining

Wall

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 Objective

• Study terms and terminology involved in the

retaining wall
• Know the types of retaining wall
• Determine, the design pressures of the
retaining wall.

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 Retaining Wall

• A retaining wall is a structure designed and

constructed
▪ to resist the lateral pressure of soil when there
is a desired change in ground elevation that
exceeds the angle of repose of the soil.
▪ to maintain the ground surfaces at different
elevations on either side.

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 Terminology in Retaining Wall

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 Terminology in Retaining Wall

Back Fill
The material retained are supported by the retaining
wall is called as Backfill.
It may be inclined or horizontal.
Surcharge
The backfill lying above the horizontal plane at the
elevation of the wall is called surcharge.
Surcharge Angle
The inclination through the horizontal plane is called
surcharge angle . It is denoted by β
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 Types of Retaining Wall

1. Gravity retaining wall

2. Semi- gravity retaining wall
3. Cantilever retaining wall
4. Counter fort retaining wall

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 Cantilever retaining wall
• Cantilever Retaining wall bent about B.
• It resist horizontal Earth pressure as well as the
vertical earth pressure by the way of bending.

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 Cantilever retaining wall

Depending upon the shape, cantilever Retaining

wall are of three types.

• T– Shape Retaining wall

• L – Shape Retaining wall
• Reversed L- Shaped Retaining wall

P. Sangeetha/ASP-Civil UCE1702 – Unit I

 Precast cantilever retaining wall

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 Cantilever retaining wall

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 Counter fort retaining wall
The vertical stem and heel slab are
strengthened by providing the counter
forts at suitable intervals in order to
reduce the shear force and bending
moment for more economical design

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 Factors to be considered for the design of
retaining wall

• Nature & type of soil

• Height of water table
• Subsoil water movements
• Type of wall
• Material used in the construction of the wall

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 Forces acting on a retaining wall

• Pressure at rest / Self weight

• Active earth pressure
• Passive earth pressure
• Bearing resistance
• Sliding resistance

Source : Wikimedia Commons

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 Retaining wall design pressure
There are three pressures acting on the retaining wall, as
follows:
1. Active earth pressure -The pressure exerted on the back
of the wall is the active earth pressure.
2. Bearing pressure -The vertical bearing pressure of the
soil or rock supports the retaining wall footing.
3. Passive earth pressure - Lateral movement of the wall
is resisted by passive earth pressure and slide friction
between the footing and bearing material.

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 Retaining wall design pressure

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 Active Earth pressure using Rankine’s
Theory
Assumptions in Rankine’s Theory
• The soil mass is semi-infinite, homogeneous, dry
and cohesionless.
• The ground surface is plane which may be
horizontal or vertical
• The back of the wall is vertical and smooth ie No
shear stress between the wall and the soil.
• The wall yields about the base and satisfies the
deformation conditions for plastic equilibrium.

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 Active Earth pressure using Rankine’s
Theory(Cohesionless Backfill)

a) Dry or moist Backfill with no surcharge.

b) Submerged Backfill.
c) Backfill with uniform surcharge.
d) Backfill with sloping surfaces.

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Dry or moist Backfill with no surcharge
The active earth pressure
Pa = Ka γH

where ka = active earth pressure coefficient

γ = total unit weight of the backfill (kN/m3)
H = height over which the active earth pressure
acts/Height of the Retaining Wall.
ka = 1- Sinϕ / 1+Sinϕ
ϕ = Angle of internal friction for the backfill
The Resultant pressure per unit length of the wall is denoted by

The resultant pressure acting H/3 above the base of the retaining wall
If the soil is dry, γ = dry unit weight
If the soil is wet, γ = Moist unit weight
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 Fully Submerged Backfill
The backfill is saturated with water, there are two
combination
(i) Lateral pressure due to submerged weight of
soil.
(ii) Lateral pressure due to water.
The pressure at the base of the retaining
wall

Pa = Ka γ ' H +γw H
Where γ ' = Submerged unit weight of soil
γw = Unit weight of water

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 Partial Submerged backfill

Pa = Ka γH2 + Ka γ ' H1 + γwH1

Where
H1 = Depth of submerged fill
Ka = active earth pressure coefficient
H2 = Depth of fill above water table
γ = moist unit weight
γ ' = submerged or effective unit weight
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 Backfill with uniform surcharge

If the backfill is horizontal and carries a surcharge of uniform intensity ‘q’ per
unit area, the vertical pressure increment, at any depth Z, will increase by ‘q’.
The increase in the lateral pressure due to this wall will be Ka q.

The lateral pressure at any depth Z is given by

Pa = Ka γZ + Ka q
At the base of the wall, the pressure intensity is
Pa = Ka γH + Ka q
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 Backfill with sloping surface

Let the sloping surface behind the wall be inclined at an angle β, with the horizontal. β is
called the surcharge angle.

The total active pressure Pa for the wall of height H is given by

The resultant stress acts at H/3 above the base in direction parallel to
the surface.
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 Passive earth pressure

Passive earth pressure is exerted on the wall when it has a tendency

to move towards the backfill.
The passive earth pressure occurs due to the soil of different level on
the both sides of the wall.

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 Passive earth pressure
If ‘h’ is the height of the fill, the intensity of passive pressure.
Pp = Kp γh
Where kp = passive earth pressure coefficient
kp = 1+Sinϕ / 1-Sinϕ
The resultant earth pressure

If the backfill is having its top surface inclined at an angle β , the passive
pressure is given by

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 Example 1
Compute the active earth pressure horizontal force on the
wall shown for the following condition

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 Example 1

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 Example 2
Find the passive earth pressure force in front of the wall for
Example 1 if h’ = 4 m

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 Modes of failures of Retaining Wall

1. Overturning about the toe

2. Sliding
3. Failure of soil due to excessive pressure at the toe
or tension at heel.
4. Bending failure of stem or base or the heel slab.

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 Overturning about the toe

Overturning failure is rotation of wall about its due to exceeding of moment

caused due to overturning forces to resisting forces.
The factor of safety against overturning is given by

= Sum of resisting moment about toe

= Sum of overturning moment about toe

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 Sliding Failure

Sliding failure is sliding of wall away from backfill when there is shearing failure at
the base of wall. The tendency to resists this is by the friction at the base.
The force of resistance F= μ∑w
where μ = coefficient of friction between the soil and concrete
∑w= Sum of vertical forces
The factor of safety F2 = μ∑w/H
‘μ ‘ values for coarse grained soils without silt μ=0.55
For coarse grained soil with silt, μ=0.45
For Silt, μ=0.35

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 Failure of soil due to excessive pressure
at toe or tension at heel
• The pressure exerted by resultant
vertical force at toe of wall must not
exceed the allowable bearing
capacity of the soil.
• The pressure distribution is
assumed to be linear.
• If ∑w is the summation of all
vertical forces and horizontal active
earth pressure. The resultant R will
strike a distance ‘ e ‘ from the
middle point of the base. Let the net
moment at the toe

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 Failure of soil due to excessive
pressure at toe or tension at heel
Distance at the point of application of the resultant = ∑M/ ∑w
e = eccentricity = b/2 X
The pressure distribution below the base at the intensity of soil
pressure at the toe and heel is given by

P1 at toe should not exist the safe bearing capacity of soil.

Similarly P2 at heel should be compressive .If P2 comes to be
tensile, the heel will be lifted about the soil.

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 Bending Failure
• The stem of T shaped cantilever
retaining wall will bend as cantilever,
so that tensile face will be towards the
backfill.
• The critical section will be at B,
where cracks may occur at the inner
face if it not properly reinforced.
• The heel slab will have net pressure
acting downwards and will bend as
cantilever having tensile face
upwards.

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 Construction Joints Wall joints
Vertical or horizontal joints are place between two successive pour of
concrete.
To increase the shear resistance at the joints, keys may be used.

Contraction Joint
These are vertical joints placed in the wall
(from top of base slab to the top of wall)
that allow the concrete to shrink without
causing harm.
The groove may be 6-8 mm wide, 12-16
mm deep and they are place at 8 -12 m
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 Wall joint
Expansion Joint
These vertical joints are provided in large retaining walls to allow for
the expansion of concrete due to temperature changes and they are
usually extended from top to bottom of the wall. These joints may be
filled with flexible joint fillers.
Horizontal reinforcing steel bars running across the stem are
continuous through all joints.

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 Expansion joint

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 Wall drainage
Accumulation of rain water in the back fill results in its saturation, and
thus a considerable increase in the earth pressure acting on the wall.
This may eventually lead to unstable conditions. Two of the options to
take care of this problem are
• Provision of weep holes w/o geo-textile on the back-face of wall
• Perforated pipe draining system with filter

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 Wall drainage
Weep Holes
• They should have a minimum diameter of 10 cm and be adequately spaced
depending on the backfill material.
• Geo-textile material or a thin layer of some other filter may be used on the back
face of wall for the full height in order to avoid the backfill material entering the
weep holes and eventually clogging them .

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 Weep holes

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 Shear key
• To increase the sliding resistance of retaining walls, other than
providing a large self-weight or a large retained soil mass, shear keys
are to be installed at the wall base.
• The principle of shear keys is to increase the extra passive resistance
developed by the height of shear keys.

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 Summary

• Studied the terms and terminology of retaining wall and its types.
• Studied how to calculate earth pressure on the retaining wall and
its failure mode.

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 Test your Understanding

1. What are the types of retaining wall?

2. What are the stability check in the case of retaining wall?
3. What is gravity retaining wall?
4. What are the stability requirements for retaining wall?
5. How the vertical stem of a counter fort retaining wall is
designed?
6. How do cantilever retaining wall derive its name?
7. Why counter forts are provided in retaining wall?
8. What is the structural action of the stem, heel and toe of a
cantilever retaining wall? Illustrate with a sketch.

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 Test your ability

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 References

• Krishnaraju N, Structural Design and Drawing, Universities Press,

2009.
• Punmia B.C, Ashok Kumar Jain and Arun Kumar Jain,
Comprehensive Design of Steel Structures, Laxmi Publications Pvt.
Ltd., 2003.
• Krishnamurthy D, Structural Design and Drawing Vol I, II and III,CBS
Publishers, 2010.
• Shah V L and Veena Gore, Limit State Design of Steel Structures

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 Thank You

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