Indian Geotechnical Conference 2017 GeoNEst

14-16 December 2017, IIT Guwahati, India

Computer Aided Analysis and Design of Retaining Walls

Harshit Raj
Akhileshwar Kumar Singh
Department of Civil Engineering, National Institute of Technology Jamshedpur, Jamshedpur 831014
E-mail : hrrocker@gmail.com; aksingh.civil@nitjsr.ac.in

Keywords: Computer Aided Design; Cantilever Retaining wall; Stability Conditions; Detailed Design
1. Introduction
This work presents the development of computer
program in c for the design of retaining wall with
different loading conditions each for cohesive and non-
cohesive soil. Loading conditions: (a) horizontal
backfill (b) inclined backfill (c) backfill with surcharge,
has been considered under each wall types: (i) vertical
rear wall, (ii) inclined rear wall. The program perform
checks for stability on trial sections and then design the
acceptable section for the given concrete strength and
parameters. The developed program will be verified
using textbook illustrative Examples.
2. Motivation and Objective
The program will be a veritable tool for the design of
retaining wall taking into account time savings and
accuracy.
3. Methodology
The program for design of wall allows the user for data
input that includes :(a) backfill properties (b) properties
of soil in front of the wall (c) surcharge condition (d)
wall parameters as shown in fig 1.These input data are
analyzed for the calculation of various stability cases.
Under unsafe conditions the user will be asked to
modify the wall parameters and under safe conditions
the calculations for the detailed designing of wall
portions: heel, toe and stem are performed.
Fig. 2 output screen of program.
5. Conclusions
As a result of this study, the development of retaining
wall: the rigor of manually evaluating and designing up
to 1000 different walls that could take several weeks
could be achieved in less than few minutes. Thus, the
speed and saving of time are good attributes of this
program as compared to manual calculation.
References
Nwaogazie, I.L., David, A.O. and Bovwe, O (2016)
Computer simulator (RETFLO) for retaining wall
flood bank protection design, volume 7, issue 4 pp.
246268, IJCIET
Bowles, E., Joseph, foundation analysis and design,
publisher: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Gosh, S. (2010): Active Earth Pressure on Retaining
Wall backfilled with c- Soil , Indian Geotechnical
Journal , 40(3), 201-205.

Fig. 1 startup screen of program.

4. Important Outcomes
The program gives outcomes for the stability and design
of the retaining wall in terms of : (a) different forces
acting on wall (b) final geometry of wall (c) factor of
safety: overturning ,sliding ,bearing capacity (d)
detailed reinforcement to be provided as shown in fig 2.