Institution Name Document No.

የኢፌዴሪ ቴ/ሙ/ስ ኢንስቲትዩት OF/FTI/ALL/01

FDRE TVT INSTITUTE
Effective date Title Issue No. Page No.
01/09/2016 2 Page 1 of 1
Foundation Engineering Module

12 5.1 Introduction
5.2 Gravity and Cantilever Walls
5.3 Proportioning Retaining Walls
5.4 Application of Lateral Earth
Pressure Theories to Design
and a Case Study

Chapter 5
5. Retaining walls
Introduction
Conventional retaining walls can generally be classified into four varieties:
1. Gravity retaining walls
2. Semigravity retaining walls
3. Cantilever retaining walls
4. Counterfort retaining walls

Gravity retaining walls

It is constructed with plain concrete or stone masonry. They depend for stability on their own
weight and any soil resting on the masonry. This type of construction is not economical for
high walls.these rely on their own weight to resist the pressure from the soil behind them.
They are typically made from concrete or stone masonry.
In many cases, a small amount of steel may be used for the construction of gravity walls,
thereby minimizing the size of wall sections. Such walls are generally referred to as
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semigravity walls
Cantilever retaining walls
Are made of reinforced concrete that consists of a thin stem and a base slab. This type
of wall is economical to a height of about 8 m. These are designed with a thin stem and a
thicker base slab, reinforced with steel to handle higher loads.
Counterfort retaining walls
Are similar to cantilever walls. At regular intervals, however, they have thin vertical
concrete slabs known as counterforts that tie the wall and the base slab together. The
purpose of the counterforts is to reduce the shear and the bending moments. Similar to
cantilever walls but with vertical concrete slabs (counterforts) added at regular intervals to
reduce bending moments
To design retaining walls properly, an engineer must know the basic parameters the unit
weight, angle of friction, and cohesion of the soil retained behind the wall and the
soil below the base slab. Knowing the properties of the soil behind the wall enables the
engineer to determine the lateral pressure distribution that has to be designed for.

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There are two phases in the design of a conventional retaining wall.
First, with the lateral earth pressure known, the structure as a whole is checked for stability.
The structure is examined forpossible overturning, sliding, and bearing capacity failures.
Second, each component of the structure is checked for strength, and the steel reinforcement
of each component is determined. This chapter presents the procedures for determining the
stability of the retainingwall.
Proportioning gravity and cantilever retaining walls
In designing retaining walls, an engineer must assume some of their dimensions. Called
Proportioning, such assumptions allow the engineer to check trial sections of the walls for
stability. If the stability checks yield undesirable results, the sections can be changed and
rechecked. Figure shows the general proportions of various retaining-wall components that
can be used for initial checks. Note that the top of the stem of any retaining wall should
not be less than about 0.3 m for proper placement of concrete. The depth, d, to the bottom
of the base slab should be a minimum of 0.6 m. However, the bottom of the base slab
should be positioned below the seasonal frost line.
For counterfort retaining walls, the general proportion of the stem and the base slab is the
same as for cantilever walls. However, the counterfort slabs may be about 0.3 m thick and
spaced at center-to-center distances of 0.3h to 0.7h.

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 Application of lateral earth pressure theories to design
To use these theories in design, an engineer must make several simple assumptions. In the
case of cantilever walls, the use of the rankine earth pressure theory for stability checks
involves drawing a vertical line ab through point a, located at the edge of the heel of the base
slab in figure. The rankine active condition is assumed to exist along the vertical plane ab.
Rankine active earth pressure equations may then be used to calculate the lateral pressure on
the face ab of the wall. In the analysis of the wall’s stability, the force pa(rankine) , the weight wc
of soil above the heel, and the weight of the concrete all should be taken into consideration.
The assumption for the development of rankine active pressure along the soil face ab is
theoretically correct if the shear zone bounded by the line ac is not obstructed by the stem of
the wall. The angle, η that the line ac makes with the vertical is

A similar type of analysis may be used for gravity walls, as shown in figure. However,
coulomb’s active earth pressure theory also may be used, as shown in figure. If it is used, the
only forces to be considered are pa(columb) and the weight of the wall, wc .

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Figure assumption for the determination of lateral earth pressure: (a) cantilever wall;
(b) and (c) gravity wall

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If coulomb’s theory is used, it will be necessary to know the range of the wall friction angle
δ’ with various types of backfill material. Following are some ranges of wall friction angle for
masonry or mass concrete walls:

backfill material range of δ’ (deg)

Gravel 27– 30
Coarse sand 20 –28
Fine sand 15 –25
Stiff clay 15 –20

silty clay 12–16

In the case of ordinary retaining walls, water table problems and hence hydrostatic pressure
are not encountered. Facilities for drainage from the soils that are retained are always
provided.

Stability of retaining walls

A retaining wall may fail in any of the following ways:
• It may overturn about its toe.
• It may slide along its base.
• It may fail due to the loss of bearing capacity of the soil supporting the base.
• It may undergo deep-seated shear failure.
• It may go through excessive settlement.

The checks for stability against overturning, sliding, and bearing capacity failure will
be described as follow.

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 Figure failure of retaining wall: (a) by overturning; (b) by sliding; (c) by bearing capacity
failure; (d) by deep-seated shear failure

Figure deep-seated shear failure

When a weak soil layer is located at a shallow depth that is, within a depth of 1.5 times the
width of the base slab of the retaining wall the possibility of excessive settlement should
be considered. In some cases, the use of lightweight backfill material behind the retaining
wall deep shear failure can occur along a cylindrical surface, such as abc shown in figure

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8.6, as a result of the existence of a weak layer of soil underneath the wall at a depth of about
1.5 Times the width of the base slab of the retaining wall. In such cases, the criti- cal
cylindrical failure surface abc has to be determined by trial and error, using various
centers such as o. The failure surface along which the minimum factor of safety is
obtained is the critical surface of sliding. For the backfill slope with a less than about 10°,
the critical failure circle apparently passes through the edge of the heel slab (such as def in
the figure). In this situation, the minimum factor of safety also has to be determined by
trial and error by changing the center of the trial circle.