DESIGN OF STRUCTURES

CE 01526

RETAINING
WALLS
INTRODUCTION
Retaining walls are the walls used to hold water, other fluids, earth and
other loose/granular material having a vertical abutting edge. For
example, the basement retaining walls of the buildings must retain the
soil surrounding the structure. Similarly, the embankments must be
retained vertically for a highway or railway bridge.
▪ The failure of these walls may be by overturning due to lateral loads,
sliding at the foundation level due to lateral loads, failure of
foundations and lack of sufficient strength.
▪ The self-weight of the wall along with the weight of soil directly
resting on the foundation provides resistance against overturning.
▪ Similarly, the total vertical load at the base multiplied with the
coefficient of friction of the contact surface provides the friction to
prevent the sliding of the wall.
MAJOR TYPES
Free Standing Retaining Walls: These are the retaining walls with no
extra load or restraint of super-structure at their top, unlike the basement
walls of the buildings.
Gravity Retaining Walls: These retaining walls are made without steel
reinforcement to carry tension. Hence, either no tensile stresses should
be developed in the structural members or these stresses should be much
less. The stability and less-tension conditions are satisfied by the self
weight of the wall. The thickness is greater even at the top and it
increases with the depth (Fig. 8. la). These walls may be constructed by
using brick masonry, stone masonry or concrete. These are economical
for low heights, generally up to 3 m.
Cantilever Retaining Walls: In this case, a relatively thin stem of
reinforced concrete projects out of the foundation, as shown in Fig. 8.1
b. The tension developed, due to large moment at depths of fill, is to be
resisted by steel and the stability is provided by a horizontal base rigidly
connected to the stem and by the weight of soil over this base.
These walls can be used economically for heights from 3 to 6 m.
MAJOR TYPES
Counterfort Retaining Walls: When height of a cantilever retaining
wall exceeds about 6 m, counterforts are used to provide additional
support or bracing at regular intervals (Fig. 8.2). Counterforts are
commonly provided on the fill side but occasionally may also be used
on the opposite-to-fill side (called buttresses). This later situation is used
for temporary arrangement in some structures and, after few years, the
other side is also filled with soil.
MAJOR TYPES
IMPORTANT PARAMETERS FOR SOILS
Angle Of Repose Of Soil: The angle with horizontal of the slope that
becomes stable with time is called angle of repose of that soil (Table
8.1). For sandy soils, the tangent of the angle of repose is approximately
equal to the coefficient of internal friction, ø. The clays have angle of
repose value depending on its internal cohesion and decreases by
increasing the moisture content. For saturated clays, the angle of repose
value may approach to zero.
Coefficient Of Friction: This factor gives the ratio of force developed
at the interface of wall base with the underlying soil to prevent sliding
with respect to the total weight on the contact surface (Table 8.1). In
case sliding between the two surfaces starts, the coefficient of friction
becomes equal to tangent of the angle of internal friction of the soil.
IMPORTANT PARAMETERS FOR SOILS
COMPONENTS OF RC CANTILEVER WALL
1. Stem or Arm: This is the actual cantilever wall vertically projecting
out of a horizontal base at the bottom, where it is rigidly connected. Due
to the horizontal soil pressure, the stem is forced to slide opposite to fill
along with the base, overturn suddenly in case of overloads, tilt due to
differential settlement of soil on one side of the base, or bend
excessively showing lesser flexural strength or stiffness.
▪ The thickness of arm at the base is taken in the range of h/14 to h/8,
where h is the height of fill.
▪ The minimum thickness at the top may be 200 mm but a value of 300
mm is preferable because a grid of steel is to be provided at both the
faces of the wall.
▪ The stem is usually made of constant thickness for total height under
3.5 m, because the extra cost of providing tapered formwork is not
generally compensated by the savings in concrete for such heights.
▪ The steel ratio (p) lesser than 0.18fc’/ fy is considered better as the
stem will not usually be critical for shear and lateral deflections will
be under control.
COMPONENTS OF RC CANTILEVER WALL

2. Base: This is the foundation slab of the retaining wall, which is

further divided into two parts, namely, the heel and the toe.
▪ The thickness ranges from h/14 to h/10 with a minimum value of 250
to 300 mm.
▪ The total width of the base depends upon the type of fill, height of
soil retained, coefficient of friction at the foundation interface and
the bearing capacity of the underneath soil. The preliminary estimate
for the width of the base is 40 to 75 % of the overall height.
COMPONENTS OF RC CANTILEVER WALL
2. Base:
▪ In order to get good bond of the stem concrete with the base, a
groove must be left while casting concrete for the base. For this
purpose, a beveled timber may be helpful for its easy removal and to
get a proper key of the stem into the base, as shown in Fig. 8.4.

3. Heel: The portion of the base slab that tends to lift up due to lateral
earth pressure, present towards the soil fill, is called heel. Its functions
are to transfer the weight of soil above it to the base in the form of a
restraining moment for the stem preventing its overturning and to
provide some resistance against horizontal sliding. Larger heel provides
better resistance against sliding.
COMPONENTS OF RC CANTILEVER WALL
4. Toe: The portion of the base slab that is pressed downward into the
soil, present away from the retained soil, is called toe. Its primary
function is to make the resultant of the applied service load forces pass
through the middle third of the base.
▪ This will avoid tension developed in any part of the foundation for
the service load condition and will make the wall stable against
overturning.
5. Key or Lug: Key (or Lug) is optionally provided in a retaining wall
system in the case where stability against overturning is satisfied by a
certain size of the base but the resistance to sliding is insufficient. The
key increases the sliding resistance of the wall by transferring the lateral
force to the abutting soil.
▪ The factor of safety against sliding should be at least 1.75 for the
factored loads. The key may be provided exactly below the stem or at
end of the toe.
▪ The depth of key is usually two-third to full depth of the base with
the thickness equal to the thickness of the stem.
COMPONENTS OF RC CANTILEVER WALL
6. Counterforts: Counterforts are used to provide lateral support to the
stem at regular interval along the length of the wall in case the height of
wall is greater and excessive moments are generated at the base. These
are in the form of tapered cross walls built towards the soil fill.
Cross wall is the general term used for perpendicular supports
introduced for stability requirements.
▪ Spacing of these counterforts is taken approximately equal to half of
the total height of the wall (values range from H/3 to H/2), with a
minimum value of 2 m.
▪ The clear spacing (S) may also be determined by the empirical
relation S = 3.5 (H/γ)1/4, where H is the height of the wall in meters
and γ is the unit weight of soil in kN/m3.
7. Buttresses: These are cross walls or any other mass placed on the toe
side of the stem in order to provide stability to the stem. Their
appearance, in some cases, may be just like counterforts but these are
not buried in the retained soil.
COMPONENTS OF RC CANTILEVER WALL
8. Expansion Joints: Expansion joints must be provided in all retaining
walls to avoid the accumulation of thermal stresses. The spacing of
these joints depends on the temperature variation possible at a particular
site, the coefficient of thermal expansion and the movement allowed at a
particular joint.
9. Weep Holes And Drainage Pipes: These are the non-structural
components of a retaining wall, but are absolutely essential to keep the
soil unsaturated. The saturated soil exerts the maximum lateral pressure
just like a viscous fluid. This makes the design of the retaining wall
quite heavy and uneconomical. The weep holes and the drainage pipes
are shown in Fig. 8.5, which are to be backed by granular material to
avoid plugging/choking of the openings. The first option is to provide
only the weep holes and second option is to provide a tile drain in the
form of a perforated drainage pipe covered with granular material.
COMPONENTS OF RC CANTILEVER WALL
LOADS/FORCES ON RETAINING WALL
1. Confinement Pressure/ Active Earth Pressure: A liquid retaining
wall is subjected to lateral hydrostatic pressure equal to γwh, where γw is
the unit weight of water and h is the height of water. Similarly, whatever
is the type of soil that is retained vertically, some portion of soil will
have a natural tendency to slide down or flow under the action of
gravity so that the remaining soil gets its natural stable slope. The
weight of this portion of soil has a major component that acts as lateral
earth pressure on the retaining wall.
▪ The magnitude of the lateral soil pressure varies with depth, exactly
as for the liquid retaining wall, as follows:

▪ For horizontal soil surfaces, coefficient of active earth pressure (Ka)

is:
LOADS/FORCES ON RETAINING WALL
2. Passive Earth Pressure: In case, due to external loads, the wall is
pushed against the soil, a bigger soil wedge will be affected, which will
have the tendency to slide upwards. The resisting pressure developed by
soil in this way is called passive earth pressure.

3. Surcharge Load: The traffic load or load of goods in a storage yard

carried by the fill, retained by the wall, is called surcharge load. In case
of highway and railway bridges, the traffic loading is usually
represented by an additional soil height of 1 m (3 ft).
4. Self Weight Of Wall: The self-weight is useful for the wall in
providing the overturning stability, and better resistance against sliding
and reduction of tensile stresses in the wall (produced due to bending
moments) is obtained. In case of gravity retaining walls, this weight
becomes more important.
LOADS/FORCES ON RETAINING WALL
5. Weight Of Fill On Heel: This weight is also desirable because it
provides the balancing moment to prevent overturning of the wall.
Further, it improves the sliding resistance.
6. Upward Soil Reaction On Footing: This soil reactive pressure is
developed below the footing as a reaction to the applied vertical load
and the resulting overturning moment at the base. The maximum
pressure that can be developed depends upon the bearing capacity of
soil.
REQUIRED RETAINING WALL STRENGTHS
For design of any type of retaining wall, three resultant forces, namely,
the resultant lateral pressure (Q), the total developed weight (P) and the
soil bearing resistance (S), shown in Fig. 8.7, have to be brought in
equilibrium; with some margin of safety. The value ß is the angle of the
backfill surface with respect to the horizontal and the value δ is the wall
friction angle. In addition, all internal stresses in the structure and all
contact pressures of footing should be within the permissible limits.
REQUIRED RETAINING WALL STRENGTHS
The retaining wall must be safe against all possible modes of failure that
are briefly explained below:
1. Structural Stability: Every part of the retaining wall, including stem,
toe and heel, has to be designed independently as a cantilever fully
restrained at the junction with the other members and carrying all the
applied loads.
▪ In case of un-reinforced gravity retaining wall, the tensile stresses
should be within limits.
▪ For reinforced wall, cracks should not open enough to expose the
steel to rusting.
▪ Both the flexural and the shear strengths of all the structural elements
must be checked for the worst conditions.
▪ Further, the requirements for development of bars and dowels must
also be satisfied.
REQUIRED RETAINING WALL STRENGTHS
2. Overturning Stability: The wall may overturn as a single unit
around the maximum compressed corner (edge of the toe).
▪ For service limit state, the restoring/ resisting moment (Mr) should
not be less than 2.0 times the overturning/ driving moment (Md),
giving a factor of safety against overturning of at least 2.0 (1.78
according to some codes).
3. Sliding Resistance: Lateral resistance against the horizontal
component of the active earth pressure has to be developed by the static
friction at the footing base and by the passive earth pressure against the
embedded front portion of the wall, with a factor of safety of at least
1.5.
▪ The total static friction can be calculated by multiplying the resultant
vertical load on the footing with the coefficient of friction (f, as in
Table 8.1) between the concrete and soil.
▪ Where this resistance is insufficient, extending a key or lug into the
soil below the footing can increase the passive pressure and hence
the resistance against sliding.
REQUIRED RETAINING WALL STRENGTHS
4. Safety Against Soil Bearing: The pressure under the footing depends
on the total vertical load on footing (W) and the moment of all loads
except soil bearing forces about the centroid of the footing (Mr). If A is
the area of footing in contact with soil and If is the moment of inertia of
the same contact area, then the contact pressure (σ) at a distance x from
the base centroid can be determined by using the usual formula, as
under:

Considering unit length of a long retaining wall, denoting the width of

the footing by B and assuming full contact of the base with the soil, the
above equation becomes:
LOAD FACTORS FOR WALL DESIGN
Lateral earth pressures (H) will be considered like live load with a load
factor of 1.6 wherever it increases the factored loads (ACI 5.3.8). In
case the effect of H is permanent and it counteracts the primary load
effect, it is to be multiplied with 0.9. Where the effect of H is not
permanent and it counteracts the primary load effect, H is not included
in the load combination.
▪ Dead loads should be multiplied with 0.9 where they reduce design
forces, such as for the toe slab, and with 1.2 where they increase
design forces, such as for the heel slab.
▪ Surcharge load is also considered as live load.
▪ Heel slab is designed for factored loads acting downwards, not
including the upward soil pressure because it may not be acting in
case of lateral pressure more than the design service pressure.
▪ The bent shape of main components of a retaining wall is shown in
Fig. 8.11 a and the main steel required is shown in Fig. 8.11 b. The
stem tries to bend away from the backfill, tension is developed on the
fill side and hence steel is required here.
LOAD FACTORS FOR WALL DESIGN
▪ For the toe, the steel is required on the lower side, whereas for the
heel, steel is required on the upper side.
PLACEMENT OF JOINTS
▪ According to the AASHTO specifications, expansion joints must not
have spacing more than 27m (90 ft) and construction joints must not
have spacing more than 13 m (30 ft).
▪ Further, horizontal temperature steel of not less than 265 mm2 per
meter depth of wall (1/8 in2 per foot) should be provided adjacent to
the exposed surface.
EXAMPLE 8.1
A gravity retaining wall is to be constructed in masonry using (1 :6) c/s
mortar and burnt clay bricks (Fig. 8. 12) and is to retain 2 m height of
soil besides heavy traffic loads. The wall is additionally embedded by
0.5 m into a soil that is medium / stiff clay. The backfill is expected to
have a density of 1750 kg/m3. The allowable compressive stress in
masonry is to be taken equal to 0.54 MPa and the safe bearing capacity
is 75 kPa. The factor of safety against sliding should be a minimum of
1.5. Ignore passive resistance of soil.
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DESIGN PROBLEM
A gravity retaining wall is to be constructed in masonry using (1 :4) c/s
mortar and burnt clay bricks (Fig. 8. 13) and is to retain 1.5 m height of
soil besides heavy traffic loads. The wall is additionally embedded by
0.4 m into a soil that is soft clay. The backfill is expected to have a
density of 1650 kg/m3. The allowable compressive stress in masonry is
to be taken equal to 0.54 MPa and the safe bearing capacity is 65 kPa.
The factor of safety against sliding should be a minimum of 1.5. Ignore
passive resistance of soil.
REQUIREMENTS FOR SIMPLE WALLS
The requirements for simple walls are given in ACI Chapter 11. The
concentrated load on a wall is distributed to a length of wall lesser of the
following:
a. Center-to-center distance between loads.
b. Bearing width plus four times the wall thickness.

Walls must be fully anchored to floors, roofs, columns, pilasters,

buttresses, intersecting walls and footings. The minimum thickness of a
bearing wall must be larger of 100 mm and 1/25 times the lesser of
unsupported length and unsupported height. Similarly, the minimum
thickness of a non-bearing wall must be larger of 100 mm and 1/30
times the lesser of unsupported length and unsupported height. The
minimum thickness of exterior basement walls is to be 190 mm (ACI
Table 11.3.1.1). Moment magnification must be considered as that for
the columns.
REQUIREMENTS FOR SIMPLE WALLS
If the resultant of all factored loads lie within the middle third of the
wall thickness, the nominal . axial strength is allowed to be calculated
using the simplified formula ignoring the moment as under:

Where k = 0.8 if wall is braced at top and bottom and is restrained

against rotation at least one end, k=1.0 if wall is braced at top and
bottom but there is no rotational constraint and k= 2.0 if the wall is not
braced. lc is the length of the compression member/height of the wall
measured center-to-center of joints. When in-plane Vu:
REQUIREMENTS FOR SIMPLE WALLS
The spacing of longitudinal bars must be equal to lesser of 3h and 450
mm. If shear reinforcement is required in wall, the maximum spacing of
longitudinal bars must be equal to lw /3.
For walls having thicknesses greater than 250 mm, the distributed steel
in each direction must be provided in two layers, except single story
basement walls and cantilever retaining walls, as per ACI 11.7.2.3.
EXAMPLE 8.2
Design a cantilever reinforced concrete retaining wall used to retain 3 m
soil above NSL with an additional burial depth of 1.5 m. The trial
dimensions of the stem and footing are shown in Fig. 8.14. The other
related data is as under:
γ = 18 kN/m3 (Active side)
Ø = 30°
γ = 16 kN/m3 (Passive side)
Allowable bearing capacity = 100 kPa
Friction coefficient, f = 0.45
Wall friction angle, δ = 0
Surcharge additional depth = 0.6 m (Ignore surcharge in resistance)
Overburden depth to ignore = 0.3 m
C-20 concrete and Grade 420 steel are to be used
Take passive earth pressure coefficient equal to one-half of its value, to
be on conservative side.
EXAMPLE 8.2
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