Retaining wall design and its types
used on construction
Haidari
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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. Retaining walls are used for supporting soil
laterally so that it can be retained at different levels on the two sides. Retaining walls are structures designed to
restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to (typically a steep, near-vertical or vertical slope). They are
used to bound soils between two different elevations often in areas of terrain possessing undesirable slopes or in areas
where the landscape needs to be shaped severely and engineered for more specific purposes like hillside farming or
roadway overpasses.
Retaining wall design consideration
Retaining walls are vertical or near-vertical structures designed to retain material on one side, preventing it from collapsing or
slipping or preventing erosion. They provide support to terrain where the soil’s angle of repose is exceeded and it would otherwise
collapse into a more natural form. The principal characteristic of a retaining wall is being able to withstand the pressure exerted
by the retained material, which is usually soil.
The most important consideration in proper design and installation of retaining walls is to recognize and counteract the tendency
of the retained material to move downslope due to gravity. This creates lateral earth pressure behind the wall which depends on
the angle of internal friction (phi) and the cohesive strength (c) of the retained material, as well as the direction and magnitude
of movement the retaining structure undergoes.
Lateral earth pressures are zero at the top of the wall and – in homogenous ground – increase proportionally to a maximum value
at the lowest depth. Earth pressures will push the wall forward or overturn it if not properly addressed. Also, any groundwater
behind the wall that is not dissipated by a drainage system causes hydrostatic pressure on the wall. The total pressure or thrust
may be assumed to act at one-third from the lowest depth for lengthwise stretches of uniform height.
It is important to have proper drainage behind the wall in order to limit the pressure to the wall’s design value. Drainage materials
will reduce or eliminate the hydrostatic pressure and improve the stability of the material behind the wall. Drystone retaining
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Walls are normally self-draining. As an example, the International
Building Code requires retaining walls to be designed to ensure
Stability against overturning, sliding, excessive foundation
Pressure and water uplift; and that they be designed
For a safety factor of 1.5 against lateral sliding and overturning.
Types of retaining walls
There are several types of retaining walls, some of the popular
Ones are discussed below.
Gravity wall
Gravity walls depend on their mass (stone, concrete or other heavy material)
To resist pressure from behind and may have a ‘batter’ setback to improve
Stability by leaning back toward the retained soil. For short landscaping
Walls, they are often made from mortar less stone or segment concrete
Units (masonry units). Dry-stacked gravity walls are somewhat flexible
And do not require a rigid footing. Today, taller retaining walls are
Increasingly built as composite gravity walls such as: geosynthetics
Such as grovel cellular confinement earth retention or with precast facing; gabions (stacked steel wire baskets filled with rocks);
crib walls (cells built up log cabin style from precast concrete or timber and filled with granular material).
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Reinforced Retaining Wall
Reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry walls on spread
foundations are gravity structures in which the stability
against overturning is provided by the weight of the wall and
reinforcement bars in the wall. The following are the main
types of wall:
Concrete Cantilever retaining wall
A cantilever retaining wall is one that consists of a wall which
is connected to foundation. A cantilevered wall holds back a
significant amount of soil, so it must be well engineered. They
are the most common type used as retaining walls. The
Cantilevered wall rests on a slab foundation. This slab
foundation is also loaded by back-fill and thus the weight of
the back-fill and surcharge also stabilizes the wall against
overturning and sliding.
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Counter-fort / Buttressed retaining wall
Counterfort walls are cantilever walls strengthened with
counter forts monolithic with the back of the wall slab and
base slab. The counter-forts act as tension stiffeners and
connect the wall slab and the base to reduce the bending and
shearing stresses. To reduce the bending moments in vertical
walls of great height, counterforts are used, spaced at
distances from each other equal to or slightly larger than
one-half of the height Counter forts are used for high walls
with heights greater than 8 to 12 m.
Cantilevered wall
Cantilevered retaining walls are made from an internal stem
of steel-reinforced, cast-in-place concrete or mortared
masonry (often in the shape of an inverted T). These walls
cantilever loads (like a beam) to a large, structural footing,
converting horizontal pressures from behind the wall to
vertical pressures on the ground below. Sometimes
cantilevered walls are buttressed on the front, or include a
counterfort on the back, to improve their strength resisting
high loads. Buttresses are short wing walls at right angles to
the main trend of the wall. These walls require rigid concrete
footings below seasonal frost depth. This type of wall uses
much less material than a traditional gravity wall.
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Reinforced Soil Retaining Wall
Mechanically stabilized earth walls are those structures
which are made using steel or Geotextiles soil
reinforcements which are placed in layers within a controlled
granular fill. Reinforced soils can also be used as retaining
walls, if they are built as an integral part of the design and
to act as an alternative to the use of reinforced concrete or
other solutions on the grounds of economy or as a result of
the ground conditions.
Soil nailed wall
Constructing a soil nailed wall involves reinforcing the soil as
work progresses in the area being excavated by the
introduction of bars which essentially work in tension, called
Passive Bars. These are usually parallel to one another and
slightly inclined downward. These bars can also work partially
in bending and in shear. The skin friction between the soil
and the nails puts the nails in tension.
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Anchored wall
An anchored retaining wall can be constructed in any of the
aforementioned styles but also includes additional strength
using cables or other stays anchored in the rock or soil
behind it. Usually driven into the material with boring,
anchors are then expanded at the end of the cable, either by
mechanical means or often by injecting pressurized concrete,
which expands to form a bulb in the soil. Technically complex,
this method is very useful where high loads are expected, or
where the wall itself has to be slender and would otherwise
be too weak.
Sheet Piled wall
Piling is earth retention and excavation support technique
that retains soil, victimization sheet sections with
interlocking edges. Pile acts as a temporary certificate wall
that has been driven into a slope or excavation to support
the soft soils collapse from higher ground to lower ground.
It provides high resistance to driving stresses and helps to
lightweight. Sheet piles will be reused on many comes and
long service life above or below water with modest
protection. Simple to adapt the pile length by either
attachment or bolting and joints square measure less apt to
deform throughout driving.
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Pile wall (secant piles, tangent piles)
These walls square measure shaped by the intersection of
individual concrete piles. These piles square measure
designed by victimization lubricator and auguring. The secant
piles overlap by concerning three inches. Another is that the
tangent pile walls, wherever the piles do not have any overlap.
These piles square measure made flush with one another. The
important advantage of secant and tangent walls is that the
exaggerated alignment flexibility. The walls conjointly might
have exaggerated stiffness, and therefore the construction
method is a smaller amount abuzz. Among the disadvantages
square measure that waterproofing is troublesome to get at
the joints, their higher price, which vertical tolerances
square measure arduous to attain for the deeper piles.
Berliner wall (soldier pile)
This kind of wall was proverbial to Roman military engineers
and was used for deep excavations. It is a comparatively
cheap system, simple and quick to construct. it is primarily
restricted to temporary construction, and can’t be employed
in high formation conditions while not in-depth dewatering
and expense. It is not as stiff as different styles of
retentive walls.
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Soil nailing wall
Soil nailing may be a technique that will not reinforce and
strengthen existing ground. It consists of putting in closely
spaced bars into a slope or excavation as construction income
from the highest down. Soil nailing is an efficient and
economical methodology of constructing a wall for excavation
support, support of hill cuts, bridge abutments, and high ways
in which. This method is effective in cohesive soil, broken
rock, sedimentary rock or fixed face conditions. This kind of
wall to Stabilization of railroad and road cut slopes and
excavation retentive structures in urban areas for high-rise
building and underground facilities. It is conjointly useful in
tunnel portals in steep and unstable stratified slopes. The
development and retrofitting of bridge abutments with
advanced boundaries involving wall support underneath
heaped-up foundations.
Bored pile wall
Bored pile retaining walls are built by assembling a sequence
of bored piles, proceeded by excavating away the excess soil.
Depending on the project, the bored pile retaining wall may
include a series of earth anchors, reinforcing beams, soil
improvement operations and shotcrete reinforcement layer.
This construction technique tends to be employed in
scenarios where sheet piling is a valid construction solution,
but where the vibration or noise levels generated by a pile
driver are not acceptable.
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Mechanical stabilization wall
Mechanically stabilized earth (MSE) walls are walls that can
tolerate some differential movement. The wall face is infilled
with granular soil whilst retaining the backfill soil. The
advantage of MSE walls is the ease of construction, as they
do not require formwork or curing. The use of soil nailing in
MSE walls, involves introducing slender steel reinforcing
bars to the soil, placed parallel to one another on a slight
incline and grouted into place. Anchored earth walls.
Crib wall
Where timber, steel or concrete cages or boxes are
interlocking, this may be described as a crib wall.
Green retaining walls
Green retaining walls can be used to retain more gentle
slopes. A geocellular structure such as a series of
‘honeycomb’ cells can be embedded into the surface of the
slope to stabilize it, and the individual cells can then be
planted.
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Barrette retaining wall
A barrette retaining wall is constructed from reinforced concrete columns of a rectangular plan form with the long axis in the
direction of retention.
Conclusion
The main uses of retaining walls are to help prevent soil erosion, create usable beds out of steep terrain and to provide decorative
or functional landscaping features. They may be independent structures, or may be part of a wider construction work, such as a
building. Planning permission is required if the wall is to be over 1-metre high and next to a road or pathway; or over 2-metres high
elsewhere. Independent, freestanding retaining walls may not require building regulation approval; however, any structures must
be structurally sound and well maintained.
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