Design of Retaining Walls

Introduction
 Retaining walls are used to hold back masses of
earth or other loose material.
 Retaining walls maintains unequal levels of earth
on its two faces.
 Used in the construction of railways, highways,
bridges, canals, basement walls in buildings,
walls of underground reservoirs, swimming
pools, water tanks etc.
Introduction
Introduction
Introduction
Gravity Retaining Walls
Cantilever Retaining Wall
Cantilever Retaining Wall

Stem

Toe Heel

Shear Key
Types of Cantilever Retaining Wall
Counterfort &Buttressed Retaining Wall
Bridge Abutment Retaining Wall
Basement Retaining Walls
Preliminary Sizes of Semi Gravity
Retaining Walls
Preliminary Sizes of Cantilever
Retaining Walls
Total Pressure and Position of
Resultant Force
 Retaining Wall Failure

 A wall may fail in three different ways:

1. The individual structural parts (stem, toe, heel) of the wall may not
be strong enough to resist the acting forces.

2. The wall as a whole may be bodily displaced by the earth

pressure, without breaking up internally.

a. Overturning

b. Sliding

3. The soil beneath the wall may fail.

 Failure of Individual Parts (stem, toe and heel) of
Retaining Wall

 The stem, heel or toe of the retaining wall may fail in

bending and shear such as when a vertical cantilever
wall is cracked by the earth pressure acting on it.

 The design of these components require the

determination of the necessary dimensions, thicknesses,
and reinforcement to resist the moments and shears.

 The usual load factors and strength reduction factors of

the ACI Code may be applied.
 Failure of Individual Parts of
Retaining Wall

 ACI load factors relating to structural

design of retaining
walls are summarized below (ACI 9.2):
 U = 1.2D + 1.6L + 1.6H
 U = 0.9D + 1.6H
 U = 1.2D + 1.6L
Failure of Individual Parts of
Retaining Wall
Failure Due to Bodily Displacement
of Retaining Wall

 To safeguard the wall against bodily

displacements, i.e., to ensure its external
stability, the overall factors of safety is
evaluated by comparing resisting forces to
maximum loads acting under service
conditions.
 Failure Due to Bodily
Displacement of Retaining Wall
 Factor of safety against
overturning about toe

(FOS)OT = Stabilizing moment / overturning

moment= ΣW a / P y ≥1.5

Where a is the distance of the resultant ΣW

= Rv from the toe

 Factor of safety against

sliding:
(FOS)S = μRv / P ≥1.5 ; where Rv = ΣW
 Failure Due to Bodily
Displacement of Retaining Wall
Failure of Soil Beneath the Wall
Failure of Soil Beneath the Wall
Failure of Soil Beneath the Wall
Failure of Soil Beneath the Wall
 Failure of Soil Beneath the Wall
 It is good practice, in general, to have the resultant
located within the middle third.

 If, as is mostly the case, the resultant strikes within the

middle third, adequate safety against overturning exists
and no special check need be made.

 If the resultant is located outside the middle third, a

factor of safety of at least 1.5 should be maintained
against overturning.
 Failure of Soil Beneath the Wall

 If the pressure of the wall on the soil beneath

exceeds the maximum allowable limits, the soil
beneath the wall may fail.

 Computed soil bearing pressures, for service

load
conditions, are compared with allowable values
set suitably lower than ultimate bearing values.
 Drainage and Other Details
Failures or damage to retaining walls, in most
cases, occur due to one of two causes:
1. Overloading of the soil under the wall with
consequent forward tipping, and
2. Insufficient drainage of the backfill.
 Allowable bearing pressures should be selected
with great care.
 Soil immediately underlying the footing and the
deeper layers should necessarily be investigated.
 Drainage and Other Details
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 the following:
 Provision of weep holes w/o geo-textile on the
back-face of wall
 Perforated pipe draining system with filter
Drainage and Other Details
Drainage and Other Details
Drainage and Other Details
Drainage and Other Details
Drainage and Other Details
Forces ACTING ON the Wall

Soil
on Active
Heel Lateral
Wall
Soil
Pressure

Soil on Toe

Footing

Shear Key
 Reactions

Passive ACTUAL FRICTION

Lateral Soil is not the same as
Pressure FRICTION CAPACITY!

Friction

Vertical
Reaction
 Computing Soil Bearing Stress
 Resolve applied forces
into a concentric vertical
force and moment on
the contact area.
 Ix = bL3/12
 A = bL
P
 c = L/2
 max = P/A + Mc/Ix M
 min = P/A – Mc/Ix
 Sliding
Vslide = Driving Force
= Demand

Vresist = sum(Resisting
Forces) = Capacity Driving
Force

FS = Vresist / Vslide Resisting

Capacity

Design for
FS > 1.5

Friction CAPACITY =  N
Not Actual Friction Reaction
 Overturning
MOT = Driving Force*arm =
Demand Resisting
Forces
MROT = sum(Resisting
Driving
Moments) = Capacity Force

FS = MROT / MOT

Design for
FS > 2.0

Point of
Rotation
 Draw FBDs

Stem

Toe
Heel
 Stem Diagrams
Shear Moment
FBD

Make
stem
thick

Capacity
enough
for shear
Add

Dem

Capacity
T&S

a
Steel

nd

De
ma
nd
Select Steel to provide flexural capacity
 Toe Add T&S Steel

Vu can be
calculated a Flexural Steel
extends a
distance ‘d’ from development
face of wall since length into the
heel and should
there is a develop within
compressive the length of
the toe.
reaction with the
wall.
Design Shear
Shear
Mu is computed at
the face of the Design Moment
wall. Moment
 Heel

Vu must be
calculated at the
face of wall since Flexural Steel
there is a tensile extends a
development
reaction with the length into the
wall. toe and should
develop within Add T&S Steel
the length of
the heel.

Design Shear
Shear
Mu is computed at
the face of the
wall.
Design Moment
Moment
 The Design Process
 Select the overall dimensions (height, embedment, footing
length and position, and estimated footing & wall
thicknesses) based on stability (sliding and overturning) and
soil strength (max/min bearing pressures) using service level
loads.
 Check slab (wall and footing) thicknesses using shear criteria
and factored loads. Adjust thicknesses as necessary,
rechecking stability and soil strength of the values change.
 Select the flexural steel for the three cantilever slab elements
using factored loads.
 Select the temperature and shrinkage steel for wall and
footing.
 Draw the resulting wall cross section (to scale!)