CE 3243

Geotechnical Engineering-II
Lecture 8: Retaining Walls

Nabid Hasnat
Adjunct Lecturer
Department of Civil Engineering
Leading University, Sylhet
Contact: n.hasnat288@gmail.com
2D Stress Element
Used to visualize change in stresses
at different orientations. However,
overall stress state remains the
same.
 Same stress on the element after every 180-degree rotation

When a X-face faces maximum stress,

the other side always faces minimum.

Always 90 degrees apart

Points at which Normal stresses are

either maximum or minimum, at those
points the corresponding shear is 0.
These rotations are principal planes and
points are principal stresses.
σ1 and are the maximum σ2 and minimum stresses, and the angle θP is the rotation required to reach the principal plane.
Shear negative upwards (clockwise rotation)

Radius is the maximum stress

The center can simply be calculated by getting the
distance between the initial ordinates and halving it.

𝜏 Shear positive downwards ( anti-clockwise rotation)

Plain of Failure for Soil

• It may seem the failure of soil may

occur at maximum shear. But that is
inaccurate.
• But we know that surcharge makes it
more difficult for the soil to shear.
• Therefore, Failure occurs at a Mohr failure Envelope
combination of both normal and shear (can be assumed linear)
stresses creating a critical condition.
• If you plot the mohr circle for the soil
sample at different stress levels, you
get the Mohr’s failure envelope. Which
gives us the popular equation for shear
failure.
 Retaining Wall
▪ Retaining wall is a structure that retain (holds back) any soil and prevents it from sliding or eroding away. It is
designed to resist the earth pressure of the material that it is holding back.
▪ In general, retaining walls can be divided into two major categories: (a) conventional retaining walls and
(b) mechanically stabilized earth walls.

Categories of conventional retaining wall:

✓ Gravity retaining wall (Figure 17.1a) is constructed with plain concrete or stone masonry. It depends for
stability on its own weight and any soil resting on the masonry. This type of construction is not economical for
high wall.
✓ Semigravity retaining wall (Figure 17.1b) In many cases, a small amount of steel may be used for the
construction of gravity wall, thereby minimizing the size of wall sections. Such wall is generally referred to as
semigravity wall.
✓ Cantilever retaining wall (Figure 17.1c) is 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.
✓ Counterfort retaining wall (Figure 17.1d) is similar to cantilever walls. At regular intervals, however, it has
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.
Design Considerations
▪ To design retaining wall properly, basic parameters of soil- the unit weight, angle of friction,
and cohesion- retained behind the wall and the soil below the base slab are necessary.

▪ Knowing the properties of the soil behind the wall enables the engineer to determine the
lateral pressure distribution.

▪ 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 for possible 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 is the structural design aspect.
 Proportioning of Gravity and Cantilever Wall
▪ 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.

▪ Figure 17.3 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 0.6m.
▪ 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.
 Horizontal stresses in Isotropic and Anisotropic material

Vertical and horizontal Vertical and horizontal

pressure is the same pressure are not the same

Therefore, the study of lateral earth pressure

is important in geotechnical Engineering
Effect of Lateral earth pressure on Retaining Walls
The proper design of Retaining walls requires an
estimation of lateral earth pressure, which is a function
of several factors, such as:
(a) The type and amount of wall movement.
(b) The shear strength parameters of the soil.
(a) The unit weight of the soil.
(b) The drainage conditions in the backfill.
Nature of Lateral Earth Pressure on a Retaining Wall

a. The wall may be restrained from moving (Figure

16.1a). The lateral earth pressure on the wall at any
depth is called the at-rest earth pressure.

b. The wall may tilt away from the soil that is retained
(Figure 16.1b). With sufficient wall tilt, a triangular
soil wedge behind the wall will fail. The lateral
pressure for this condition is referred to as active
earth pressure.

c. The wall may be pushed into the soil that is retained

(Figure 16.1c). With sufficient wall movement, a soil Figure 16.1 Nature of lateral earth pressure on a retaining wall.
wedge will fail. The lateral pressure for this condition
is referred to as passive earth pressure.
 For refreshing your memory on lateral earth
pressure, check out Chapter 16 of
Principles of Foundation Engineering 9th
edition (BM Das)

At rest: No mobilization

Passive: Retaining wall Mobilizes against soil

Active: Soil mobilizes against retaining wall Question: Generally speaking, which
would be the largest?
Application of Lateral Earth Pressure Theories

▪ In case of cantilever wall, 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 17.4a.
▪ 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 of soil
above the heel, and the weight of the concrete all
should be taken into consideration.
Stability of Retaining Wall

▪ A retaining wall may fail in any of the following ways:

• It may overturn about its toe (Figure 17.5a.)
• It may slide along its base (Figure 17.5b.)
• It may fail due to the loss of bearing capacity of the base soil (Figure 17.5c.)
• It may undergo deep-seated shear failure (Figure 17.5d.)
• It may go through excessive settlement.
Check For Overturning
The factor of safety against overturning about the toe—that is, about point C in Figure 17.7—may be expressed as:

Figure 17.7 shows the forces acting on a cantilever and a gravity

retaining wall, based on the assumption that the Rankine active
pressure is acting along a vertical plane AB drawn through the
heel of the structure.
The overturning moment due to Rankine active earth pressure :

1
1 1 1
1

Pp is the force due to Rankine passive pressure:

The moment arm is to be calculated in a case to case basis. It is usually however omitted.
Check For Overturning
To calculate the resisting moment about the toe, (neglecting Pp), a
table such as Table 17.1 can be prepared. The weight of the soil
above the heel and the weight of the concrete (or masonry) are
both forces that contribute to the resisting moment. Note that the
force Pv (the vertical component of the active force Pa ) also
contributes to the resisting moment. The moment of the force Pv
about C is:

Without considering Mv the factor of safety can be calculated as:

Some designers prefer to determine the factor of safety against

overturning with the formula considering Mv :

The usual minimum desirable value of the factor of safety with

respect to over turning is 2 to 3.
Check For Sliding
The factor of safety against sliding may be expressed by the equation:

Figure 17.8 indicates that the shear strength of the soil immediately below the
base slab may be represented as:

Thus, the maximum resisting force that can be derived from the soil per unit length of
the wall along the bottom of the base slab is:

Considering the effects of Passive earth pressure, The resistive force:

Due to the active earth pressure, the driving force:

Therefore, factor of safety:

Check For Sliding

A minimum factor of safety of 1.5 against sliding is generally required.

Check For Bearing Capacity

Here, the base of the retaining wall can be treated as a strip foundation that is
subjected to a line load, which can act eccentrically and with some inclination to the
vertical.

Let the line of action of the resultant R intersect the base slab at E. Then the distance
be:

These have been determined in Table 17.1

Using the simple principles from the mechanics of materials, the linearly varying
pressure distribution under the base of the wall can be expressed as:
Check For Bearing Capacity

According to Meyerhoff’s Equation, Bearing Capacity of Soil:

You can also use Tarzhagi’s Equation

Now The factor of safety is: See example 6.5 in chapter 6,

Principles of Foundation
Engineering 9th edition for
clarification.

Generally, a factor of safety of 3 is required.

Determine Rankine’s Active and passive pressure
Pa
Safety Against Overturning
Safety Against Sliding
Safety Against Bearing Capacity Failure
Homework

Rankine’s
Drainage Considerations
▪ Due to rainfall or other wet conditions, the backfill material for a retaining wall may become saturated, thereby
increasing the pressure on the wall and perhaps creating an unstable condition. To solve this weep holes or
perforated drainage pipes may be used. When provided, weep holes should have a minimum diameter of about 0.1 m
and be adequately spaced.
▪ To solve the possibility of backfill material washing into weep holes or drainage pipes and clogging them, a filter
material needs to be placed behind the weep holes or around the drainage pipes. Geotextiles can be used.
▪ When selecting the material for a granular filter, two contradicting criteria have to be satisfied. In the first one,
known as the retention criterion, the filter material should be fine enough to prevent migration of fines from the
soil into the filter. In the second one, known as the permeability criterion, the filter should be coarse enough
compared to the soil being protected to act as a sink and avoid build-up of excess pore water pressure.

In these relations, the subscripts F and B refer to the filter

and the base material (i.e., the backfill soil), respectively.
Also, D15 and D85 refer to the diameters through which
15% and 85% of the soil (filter or base, as the case may
be) will pass.
Mechanically stabilized retaining walls
▪ Reinforcement materials such as metallic strips, geotextiles, and geogrids are now being used to
reinforce the backfill of retaining walls, which are generally referred to as mechanically stabilized
retaining walls. The general principles for designing these walls are given in the following sections.

Soil Reinforcement
▪ The use of reinforced earth is a recent development in the design and construction of
foundations and earth-retaining structures.
▪ Reinforced earth is a construction material made from soil that has been strengthened by
tensile elements such as metal rods or strips, nonbiodegradable fabrics (geotextiles), geogrids,
and the like.
▪ The beneficial effects of soil reinforcement derive from (a) the soil’s increased tensile strength
and (b) the shear resistance developed from the friction at the soil-reinforcement interfaces.
▪ Such reinforcement is comparable to that of concrete structures.
▪ Currently, most reinforced-earth design is done with free-draining granular soil only.
▪ Thus, the effect of pore water development in cohesive soils, which, in turn,
reduces the shear strength of the soil, is avoided.
Considerations in soil Reinforcement
Metal Strips
▪ Galvanized steel strips are mostly used as reinforcement in soil.
However, galvanized steel is subject to corrosion. The rate of corrosion
depends on several environmental factors.
▪ Binquet and Lee (1975) suggested that the average rate of corrosion of
galvanized steel strips varies between 0.025 and 0.050 mm/yr. So, in
the actual design of reinforcement, allowance must be made for the
rate of corrosion. Thus,
tc = tdesign + r *(life span of structure)
tc = actual thickness of reinforcing strips to be used in construction
tdesign = thickness of strips determined from design calculations
r = rate of corrosion
Nonbiodegradable Fabrics
▪ Nonbiodegradable fabrics are generally referred to as geotextiles.
▪ The fabrics are usually made from petroleum products—polyester,
polyethylene, and polypropylene. They may also be made from
fiberglass.
▪ Geotextiles are not prepared from natural fabrics, because
they decay too quickly. Geotextiles may be woven, knitted, or
nonwoven.
▪ Geotextiles have four primary uses in foundation engineering:
1. Drainage: The fabrics can rapidly channel water from soil to
various outlets, thereby providing a higher soil shear strength and
hence stability.
2. Filtration: When placed between two soil layers, one coarse
grained and the other fine grained, the fabric allows free seepage of
water from one layer to the other. However, it protects the fine-
grained soil from being washed into the coarse-grained soil.
3. Separation: Geotextiles help keep various soil layers separate
after construction and during the projected service period of the
structure. For example, in the construction of highways, a clayey
subgrade can be kept separate from a granular base course.
4. Reinforcement: The tensile strength of geofabrics increases
the load-bearing capacity of the soil.
Geogrids
▪ Geogrids are high-modulus polymer materials, such as polypropylene
and polyethylene, and are prepared by tensile drawing.
▪ Geogrids generally are of two types: (a)
uniaxial and (b) biaxial. Figures 8.22a
and b shows these two types of
geogrids.
▪ The major function of geogrids is
reinforcement. They are relatively stiff.
The apertures are large enough to
allow interlocking with surrounding
soil or rock to perform the function of
reinforcement or segregation (or both).
Thank you
Any questions?