RETAINING WALL

-Analysis And Design

By SAP 2000
 Contents

Introduction
Types Of Retaining Wall
Modes Of Failure
 What is a Retaining wall?
A retaining wall is a structure that
holds or retains soil behind it and
is used for maintaining the ground
surfaces at different elevations on
either side of it.

There are many types of materials

that can be used to create
retaining walls like concrete
blocks, poured concrete, treated
timbers, rocks or boulders

Retaining walls provide lateral

support to vertical slopes of soil.
They retainsoil which would
otherwise collapse into a more
natural shape. The retained soil is
referred to as backfill.
Parts Of Retaining Wall
 Types of Retaining walls
On the basis of shape & mode of resisting
pressure due to backfill.

1. Gravity retaining wall

2. Semi-Gravity retaining wall
3. Cantilever retaining wall
4. Buttress wall
1. GRAVITY RETAINING
WALL
The gravity wall resists the
earths pressure exerted by
backfill by its own self weight
(dead load).
It is usually built in stone
masonry, and occasionally in
plain concrete
2. SEMI GRAVITY RETAINING
WALLS
Semi-gravity walls resist external
forces by the combined action of
self weight, weight of soil above
footing and the flexural resistance
of the wall components
Reinforcements are provided to
resist moments generated by
3. CANTILEVERED RETAINING
WALLS
The Cantilever wall is the most
common type of retaining structure
and is generally economical for heights
up to about 8m
The structure consists of vertical
stem , and a base slab, made up of
two distinct regions, viz., a heel slab
and a toe slab.
4. COUNTERFORT RETAINING
WALLS
The bending moments can be
considerably reduced by
introducing transverse
supports, called counter-forts.
5. BUTTRESS WALL

It is similar to counterfort wall,

except that the transverse stem
supports, Called buttress, are
located in the front side,
interconnecting the stem with
the toe slab(and not with heel
slab, as with counterforts)
Although the buttresses are
structurally more efficient (and
more economical) counterforts,
the counterfort wall is generally
preferred to the buttress wall as
it provides free usable space
(and better aesthetics)in front of
the wall.
MODES OF FAILURE
There are 5 types of modes of failure
1. SLIDING FAILURE
Sliding failure is nothing but sliding of wall away from
backfill when there is shearing failure at the base of wall.

The Factor of safety against sliding is,

< 1.5

where,
= coefficient of friction = tan

= vertical & horizontal components of

resultant R of weight of wall & earth pressure
2. OVERTURNING FAILURE
Overturning failure is rotation of wall about its
toe due to exceeding of moment caused due
to overturning forces to resisting forces.
The Factor of safety against overturning is
given by,

< 1.5 - 2.0

where,
= sum of resisting moment about toe

= sum of overturning moment about

toe
3. BEARING CAPACITY
FAILURE
The pressure exerted by resultant vertical
force at toe of wall must no exceed the
allowable bearing capacity of the soil.

The pressure distribution is assumed to be

linear.

The maximum pressure is given by,

The Factor of safety against bearing failure is,

< 3.0
where,
= allowable bearing pressure