Chapter 8 - RETAINING

WALLS
CE 306
Earth Pressures
 Horizontal pressures

There are many civil engineering situations where we need to know the
horizontal/lateral pressures on a structural member so that we can ensure
safety or assess lateral movements, eg:

Piles Walls
 Horizontal pressure 2

The horizontal pressure is a function of the vertical effective

stress:

 'h  K 'v
Where K is a factor known as an Earth Pressure coefficient
and relates horizontal effective stress to vertical effective
stress

There are three limiting conditions of lateral earth pressure,

Ka, K0, and Kp. The “active”, “at rest” and “passive”
conditions
 Sliding surface Load on wall
Wall moves
AWAY from
the soil
Soil PASSIVE
Wall
45°+ f/'2

Sliding surface
ACTIVE Soil
Small deformations,
then load on wall Wall moves
45°- f/'2
drops to a MINIMUM TOWARDS
the soil Wall

Wall moves away from the soil,

Deformation
usually under the earth pressure Wall is pushed into the soil, and thus
thrust, and earth pressure falls to a has a resistance from the soil, which
minimum rises to a maximum
Active and passive from Mohr Circle

t
R = 'av -–'’
’ va
2

c'
R
angle f ' '
c' cot f ' 'a 'v '
p
ACTIVE
PASSIVE
'a + 'v
2 'v + 'p
2
 Formulae for Ka derived from Mohr Circle
R  'v  'a
 sin f ' R
c' cot  ' 'a  R 2

Re-arrange, and get ’a on the left hand side, and we get ….

 'a  K a 'v 2c' K a In which Ka is :

Ka 
1  sin f ' 2 f' 
 tan  45  
1  sin f '  2
You most often see the first form of this, but the second form is easier
to do on a calculator.
 Formulae for Kp derived from Mohr Circle

Doing the same algebra on the passive circle, we find:

R  ' p  'v
 sin f ' R
c' cot  ' 'v  R 2
Re-arrange, and get ’p on the left hand side, and we get ….

 ' p  K p 'v 2c' K p In which Kp is :

Kp 
1  sin f ' 2 f' 
 tan  45  
1  sin f '  2
 Active and passive pressures

ACTIVE

 'a  K a 'v 2c' K a NOTE

PASSIVE
The similarities and
 ' p  K p 'v 2c' K p differences

The theory was developed by RANKINE in the 1850s, with the

inclusion of the effects of cohesion by BELL in 1914. It wasn’t
expressed in terms of effective stresses until about 1950. We refer to
it as “Rankine’s earth pressure theory”, and use “Rankine’s earth
pressure coefficients”.
 Pressures on walls

The K factors are known as the EARTH PRESSURE COEFFICIENTS, or

as the ACTIVE EARTH PRESSURE COEFFICIENT Ka and the PASSIVE
EARTH PRESSURE COEFFICIENT Kp

Consider the earth pressures on the wall shown in the first diagram:
Sliding surface
… and we will do it without Wall moves
cohesion, and also without AWAY from Soil
water, so that: the soil

 'a  K a 'v Wall

45°+ f/'2

Because the vertical effective stress increases linearly from ground

level, then so too does the earth pressure …
 Pressure distribution

Ka is always less than 1.

Kp is always more than 1.
Sand, which when loose has a f’ of at least 30°, is a convenient
material to demonstrate with, since Ka is 1/3 and Kp is 3 in this material.

Sliding surface
Wall moves 0
AWAY from Soil
the soil Pressure diagram: the force
Qa is given by the area of the

Wall
45°+ f/'2 diagram

Ka g H

1
NB do not mistake the surface on which soil
slides with the shape of the pressure diagram
Qa  K a g H 2

2
 Pressure distribution with surcharge
Note that the line of action of a force which is the result of a set of
pressures goes through the centroid of the pressure diagram. Hence,
the line of action of the self-weight earth pressure (which is a triangular
distribution) goes through 1/3 height, but the line of action of the earth
pressure generated by the surcharge goes through ½ height.
Surcharge load per unit area is p
Pressure diagram: the force
0 + Ka p Qa is given by the two areas
Wall moves of the diagram
AWAY from Soil
the soil

Wall
Ka g H + Ka p
1
Qa  K a g H 2  K a p
2
 Effect of water

Ground Water
level level

z
K ag z

wall
h
Kag z  Ka (g  g w )h

Water Effective
pressures earth
pressures
This is much easier if there is (a) no water, or (b) water level at ground level.
 Some calculations:

For f’=30°, Ka=1/3

Wall 5m high, g=20 kN/m3, then:
Qa = ½ x 1/3 x 20 x 25 = 83.33 kN

With GWL at surface, taking gw=10 kN/m3, then:

Qa = ½ x 1/3 x (20-10) x 25 + ½ x 10 x 25
= 166.67 kN …. Or DOUBLE
 Coulomb earth pressure theory
Coulomb’s “Essay of Earth Pressures” (in French) goes back to
c. 1776.
It is based on something very similar to slope stability, with a block
sliding down an inclined plane.
The active force is the force required to give F=1
We can include water pressures, although this is a much more
modern innovation.
The method can cope with cohesion AND friction (although Coulomb
only used friction) – both soil to soil, and soil to wall; with “live” loads
on the soil surface, and seismic loading if desired.
We can find the critical wedge inclination by calculus for simple
cases, or by trial and error … nowadays with a computer. Culmann
produced a graphical method to solve it.
Coulomb’s method
Normal
Consider sliding along plane effective force
surface
Water force
Shear
resistance
Wedge
force
weight

Q’a

Vary this angle to find

Retaining MAXIMUM force on
wall the wall
Force polygon
5. Water
force on
wall

7. Swing off
angle delta
1.
(wall friction)
Weight
2. Line
3. Line normal normal to slip
to wall back surface
face

6. Swing off 4. Water

angle Phi force on slip
surface
 Advantages and disadvantages
With Coulomb’s method, you can cope with some complex geometries,
including non-uniform sloping ground surface and point loads on it. With small
modifications we can add cohesion and wall adhesion (cohesion on the soil-wall
boundary).
The problem is that it is difficult to get any insight into the real nature of the earth
pressure problem in the way that you do with a simple formula.
Rankine’s method, developed in the 1850’s is based not on force equilibrium,
but on pressures. Bell added the effects of cohesion to Rankine’s theory in 1914.
We started on earth pressures with Rankine’s theory.
It gives us plenty of insight, but is more difficult to apply to realistic, and thus
complicated cases …. for example, modifying Rankine’s earth pressure
coefficients to deal with sloping ground surface and sloping wall backface is
difficult enough, but adding wall friction and adhesion is a nightmare.
For more insight, read Clayton & Milititsky’s “Earth Pressure and Earth-Retaining
Structures” (Surrey Uni Press, 1986) – there is a 2nd edition with Woods as a co-
author and soon to be a 3rd edition.
Gravity Walls
Types of gravity wall

Gravity retaining
wall – crib and
gabion walls work
in this mode too

Buttressed wall – Slender RC

effectively a gravity wall. Extended
type. Usually reinforced heel helps
concrete. Batter on assist
retaining face allows a overturning
component of soil stability
weight & earth
pressure to assist
overturning stability Counterforts are “buttresses” on the
other side of the wall ….
 A “downstand” underneath the wall gives
more passive resistance against sliding
forward. We get more resistance if this is
put under the middle of the wall, and more
again if it is under the backfill (as going from
1 to 2 to 3) ….

2
… but the excavations get
progressively more difficult (1 to 2
to 3) and the temporary works more
problematical. 3
Cantilever reinforced concrete
wall
 Cantilever reinforced concrete
wall

Like the previous

photo, this is a
spillway channel
for a major dam
Gravity walls
made from
gabions

www.ieca.org
Oops!

Benjamin Baker
“The actual lateral
pressure of
earthwork”
Institution of Civil
Engineers, 1881.
Failure at an
Underground station
under construction.
 Components of gravity wall
q

W Qa2
Ha
Qa1

Hp Qp
R
B
 Sliding resistance
The essence of a retaining wall design is to find a way of resisting the
active earth pressure forces and moments safely and economically.
In the diagram, the wall is subject to a combined force Qa. It does not
slide forward if the friction on its base is much greater than Qa.

1
Qa  K a g H 2  K a qH
2
The resistance R depends on the weight of the wall, and the coefficient
of friction on its base, i.e. (again, without cohesion and without water
pressure:

R  W tan f ' In traditional thinking R must be substantially

bigger than Qa to provide a Factor of Safety F
(=R/ Qa) typically at least 1.5 for sliding often 2 to
3 is required
 Purpose of factor of safety

1. This keeps the deformations small. Our calculation is

based on “It fails” or “It doesn’t fail”. We also want small
deflections. A big safety factor means that the resistance is
not all used up, and that keeps deformations small.
2. Lots of unforeseen events can occur. For example, the
surcharge may be dramatically increased. When it gets
down to a critical weight, it can slide forward. Beware!
3. A big effect is when the soil stops being “without water”.
Water pressures can dramatically increase soil loads on
the wall.
 Overturning

There are more ways of failure than simply sliding forward. For
example, it might turn over. For this, we consider rotation about the
toe of the wall. The moments causing rotation are:

1 2 1 1
M a  Ka g H H  K a pH H
2 3 2
The resisting moment is

Where x-bar is the distance of the centroid of the wall

Wx away from its toe
Again, we want a big safety factor typically at least 2
Example
precast concrete unit
ground level

stockpile of gravel

H
BW

concrete slab
 precast concrete unit
ground level

stockpile of gravel

H
BW

H/3

concrete slab K ag H
 1
Active force = K ag H 2
2
precast concrete unit 1
ground level Lever arm = H
stockpile of gravel 3
1
Moment = K ag H 3
H 6
BW

precast concrete unit

H/3 ground level

concrete slab
K ag H
weight of gravel
H
BW
How big does B have to be to resist this
overturning moment?

concrete slab
 Assume the concrete unit has a thickness of b,
then counterbalancing moment is:
precast concrete unit

B  B  b
  b  g conc Bb    b   H  b  g B  Hb g conc
ground level

2  2  2
weight of gravel
H
B W

For b = 0.2m, B = 0.75m and H = 2.0m the restoring moment is:

0.08625 gconc + 0.77625 g + 0.04 gconc = 0.1263 gconc + 0.7763 g

concrete slab
= 17.8 kNm
ACTIVE SIDE:
For f’=30 degrees, Ka = 1/3
g= 19 kN/m3 gconc=24 kN/m3

Moment = 1/6 x 0.333 x 19 x 23 = 8.44 kN.m

For a FoS, F = 2, need a resisting moment of 16.9 kN.m

Therefore OK, JUST! = 17.8 kNm

 What happens if gravel is NOT heaped up – but
becomes “waterlogged”, with water level at the
surface?

Answer:
The unit weight of the soil increases slightly.
We need to take account of pore pressures.
The overall active load more or less doubles for this case.
The Factor of Safety is now much lower.
Calculation follows.
 H
w
al
l

h
po
re ve
w

gH
at rti
er ca
-

pr lt
es ot
al
su st
re re
ss
=

gw h

ve
rti
ca
le
ffe
Ka

po
x by

re ct
w iv
at e
st
er ho re
ss
+

pr riz
es on
su ta
re l ef
=

fe
ct
iv
e
ho st
re
r izo ss
nt
al
to
ta
… always do the calculations in this sequence, and you can’t go wrong !

ls
tre
ss
It is easiest to do calculation if the water table comes up to ground level
….
In this case, we do a calculation with the submerged density (unit
weight!) which is g '  g  g w… and then add the water pressure back
in.
Hence, assuming that the density does not change, we have:
1 1
Active force = K ag ' H 2
gwH2
2 2
1 1
Lever arm = H H
3 3
1 1
Moment = K ag ' H 3 gwH3
6 6

= 4 kNm = 13.67 kNm

Total moment = 17.67 kN.m …. F ≈ 1.0, so unacceptable
 Effects of water pressures

Note that any calculation done WITHOUT pore water pressures is probably flawed.
Even if you put some drainage in behind the wall, you can never remove all the
pore water.

rain

If we draw a flow net (blue),

we may find zero pore
pressures down the back of
the wall where the drain is
(red), but will find some pore
pressures along the potential
slide plane (red dashed) – so
be careful!
 Other modes of failure
The wall could also rotate about its “heel” if the soil underneath it had
inadequate bearing capacity (see bearing capacity notes), or it could
rotate in the opposite sense if involved in a rotational slip.
Bearing capacity failure – the basic theories for
this are taught separately under “Shallow
Foundations”

heel

Rotational slip failure

Methods for analysing this are taught under the “Slope Stability” heading
 Common mistakes with walls

Forgetting that if you need a temporary excavation in which to

build a wall, that temporary excavation needs to be stable. Failure
of temporary works excavations can be very dangerous.
Forgetting that Ka is bigger, and Kp smaller, when the ground
slopes. When the ground slopes at an angle the same as f’, then
Ka = Kp.
Forgetting that the passive pressure is very sensitive to depth: if a
small trench is excavated at the toe of a wall it can easily fail.
Forgetting that even with a reasonable F, there are still ground
deformations. These can sometimes extend far away from the
excavation, causing cracking and tilting of structures.
 Common mistakes with walls

Forgetting that if the wall is designed for low water pressures, then
it is essential to provide drains. If the drains get blocked or can’t
discharge, then the wall will probably fail.
Forgetting that sometimes construction materials have a (short)
finite life, or can be damaged by common events. For example,
plastics materials are useless if there is a fire. Metals corrode.
Organic materials rot. Can the wall be replaced or repaired? If not,
use a more durable system.
Forgetting that demolition might take place after the plans have
been lost. Some systems are inherently easier to dismantle ….
Using a stupid bit of a building code in an inappropriate way.
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