DESIGN OF NAILED SOIL WALL

Dr. K.PREMALATHA,
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR,
DEPARTMENT OF CIVIL ENGINEERING,
C.E.G CAMPUS, ANNA UNIVERSITY,
CHENNAI – 600 025
 ABSTRACT
Various slope protection or shoring methods are
available and adopted in the construction industry.

Soil nailing technique, a top down construction

method is successfully employed all over the world for
last few decades for shoring the excavations in
temporary or permanent working conditions.

This paper discuss about the concept of the soil

nailing technique, factors to be considered in adopting
the system and a simplified method of design.
 GENERAL
In major urban areas new facilities are replacing older
buildings and are being built very close to the existing
buildings and infrastructure.

Huge land cost necessitates to utilize the maximum space

and new structures are built almost upto the property
line.

Recent upsurge in all industry and infrastructure

development resulted number of multi-storied office
building with 3 to 4 basements having large floor area.
 GENERAL Contd…

Part of the some of the transport projects requires

construction below the ground level.
Construction of the above buildings and Infrastructure
facility requires deep excavation in soils and rocks.
This excavation alters the stresses and disturbs the existing
equilibrium and became unstable.
This condition is very severe for deeper vertical cut in
soils.
In order to improve the stability and to prevent failure,
the excavations are braced or supported.
 Retaining Wall

ACTIVE ZONE PASSIVE ZONE

DrivingForce Resisting Force

Reinforcements

α=45+φ/2
Retaining Wall
 Some Of The Difficulties Associated
With Deep Excavation Are
Suitable access for mechanized excavation

Subsidence due to large scale dewatering,

In-adequate passive resistance due to the

presence of loose sand or soft marine clay deposit,

Design of strut for very large excavation like

50m and Water proofing in basements.
 Some of the retaining system that are
evolved to support the deep excavations
Steel sheet pile wall,
RCC Diaphragm wall,
Secant pile wall,
Berlin wall,
Tie back wall,
Slurry wall trenches and
Soil nailing.
Steel sheet pile Wall
RCC Diaphram Wall
Secant Pile Wall
Berlin Wall
Tie-back Wall
Slurry Trench Wall
 Soil Nailing
Basic concept of soil nailing technique is to
reinforce or strengthen the existing in situ
ground with minimal surficial disturbance by
installing closely spaced reinforcement bars called
nails in the soil.

Most common practice of soil nailing consists of

drilled soil nails, in which a steel bar is placed in a
pre-drilled hole and then grouted.
Fig.1 Typical Cross Section of a Soil Nail Wall
Step 1 Excavate Small Cut
Step 1 Excavate Small Cut
Step 2 Drill Nail Hole
Step 2 Drill Nail Hole
Step 2 Drill Nail Hole
Step 2 Drill Nail Hole
Step 3: Nail Installation and Grouting
Step 3: Nail Installation
Step 4: Construction of Temporary
Shotcrete Facing
Step 4: Construction of Temporary
Facing
Step 4: Shotcrete Facing
Post Tensioning of Nail
Post Tensioning of Nail
Step 5: Construction of Subsequent
levels
Step 6: Construction of a Final
Permanent Facing
Step 6: Construction of a Final
Permanent Facing
Step 6: Construction of a Final
Permanent Facing
 Application of Soil Nail Walls
• Well suited - Vertical or near Vertical cuts.
• Temporary or permanent application
– Roadway cut excavations,
– road widening under an existing bridge end,
– repair and reconstruction of existing retaining structures
• Favorable ground type suited for soil nailing
– Stiff to hard fine grained soil,
– Dense to very dense granular soil with some apparent cohesion,
– Weathered rock with no weaker planes and
– Glacial soils.
• Other soil conditions - significant extra effort and cost
is needed
Fig 3 Potential Failure Surfaces and Soil Nail
Tensile Forces.
 Analysis of soil nail wall
Two distinct limiting conditions are considered in
the analysis and design.

Strength limits states

Service Limit States
 Strength Limits States
Strength limit states the failure or collapse mode
in which applied load induce stresses that are
greater than the strength of the whole system or
individual components and the structure
becomes unstable.

The potential failure conditions considered are

external failure mode, internal failure mode
and facing failure mode.
 Service Limit States
These limit States refers to conditions that do not
involve collapse, but rather impair the normal and
safe operation of the structure.

The major service limit states associated with soil nail

walls is excessive wall deformation.

The additional factors that are to be addressed in the

analysis and designs are drainage of the soil behind the
wall and corrosion of the soil nail bar.
 External Failure Modes
External failure modes refer to the development of
potential failure surface passing through or
behind the soil nails.
The soil nail wall mass is treated as a block.
Stability calculations take into account the resisting
soil forces acting along the failure surface to
establish the equilibrium of this block.
If the failure surface intersects one or more soil
nails, the intersected nails contribute to the
stability of the block by providing an external
stabilizing force that must be added to the soil
resisting force along the failure surface.
 External Failure Modes
Factors that control external stability are wall height,
soil stratigraphy behind and under the wall, soil nail
length, soil, nail and interface strengths. The external
failure modes are

Global Failure Mode,

Sliding Failure Mode and
Bearing Failure Mode.
Figure: 4 a Global Stability Failure
Figure 5 Global Stability Analysis of Soil Nail Wall
using a Single-Wedge Failure Mechanism.
Figure: 4 b Sliding Stability Failure
 FSSL= R
D

R=Cb BL + (W + QD + PA sin) tan b

D=PA cos

Figure 6: Sliding Stability of a Soil Nail Wall.

Figure: 4.c Bearing failure ( Basal Heave)
 Bearing Capacity Failure
Bearing capacity is a concern, when a soil nail
wall is excavated in fine grained soft soils.

Since the wall facing is not extended

below the bottom of excavation, the
unbalanced load caused by the excavation,
cause the bottom of the excavation to heave
and trigger a bearing capacity failure of
foundation.
 Internal Failure Modes

Nail Soil Pull out Failure

Slippage of the Bar-Grout Interface
Tensile Failure of the Nail
Bending and Shear of the Nails
Figure: 4 d. Nail Soil Pull out Failure
e. Bar grout Pull out Failure
Figure: 4 f. Nail Tensile Failure
g. Nail Bending or Shear Failure
 Nail Pullout Failure
Pullout failure is the primary internal failure mode in
a soil nail wall.
This failure mode occurs when the pullout capacity per
unit length is inadequate and the nail length is
insufficient.
The pullout capacity RP is mobilized when the
ultimate bond strength is achieved and is expressed as
RP = Tmax = Qu LP, where Qu =  qu D
where Qu = Pullout capacity per unit length and
qu = Ultimate bond strength.
A minimum factor a safety of 2 is recommended
against pullout failure.
 Nail Pullout Failure
The stability contribution of each soil nail depends on
the location of the intersection of the failure surface
and nail.
The location of failure surface also determines the nail
length behind the failure surface. Maximum tensile
forces in a nail also depend on the subsequent excavation
lift.
Soil creep and stress relaxation are the post
construction effect that are to be considered to determine
the maximum nail force.
Nail forces are normalized with respect to the soil unit
weight, the soil nail vertical and horizontal spacing,
the wall height and active earth pressure co-efficient.
 Nail Pullout Failure
For a balanced design, for all internal failure
modes, the soil strength and nail tensile
strength must be mobilized at the same time.
The nail tensile force for this condition is the
maximum design force in the nail.
If soil strength is not fully mobilized the
tensile forces in the nail must compensate to
achieve equilibrium.
Hence calculation of Tmax directly from the
global stability analysis is found to be more
conservative.
 Nail Pullout Failure
The tensile failure of the soil nail takes place when
the longitudinal force along the soil nail, Tmax s is greater
than the nail bar tensile capacity (RT.), and is defend as
RTall = RT/FST,

Where FST in the factor of safety against soil nail

tensile failure a minimum factor of safety of 1.8 is
adopted for static load.

Facing also determines the nail design force.

 RT = Nail tensile capacity
RF = Facing capacity
RP = Pullout capacity
To ≈ 0.6-1.0 T max

RP< RT < RF (pull out controls)

RT < RP < RF (tensile failure
controls)
RF < RP or RT (facing failure may
control depending on To/Tmax)

Fig 7. Simplified distribution of nail tensile force

 Facing connection failure modes

The most common potential failure

modes at the facing-nail head connection
are Flexure failure, Punching Shear
Failure and Headed – Stud Tensile
Failure.
Figure: 4 h. Facing Flexure Failure
i. Facing punching shear Failure
Figure: 4 . j Headed – Stud Failure
 Deformation Behaviour of soil Nail
Walls

A Non dimensional rigidity number, N is defined by

Juran and is
N = (Ks D l02/ H γ SV SH)
In the above equation, Ks is the lateral soil reaction
modulus, which is the function of soil strength, D is the
diameter of reinforcement, γ is the unit weight of the
soil.
 Deformation Behaviour of soil Nail Walls

H is the wall height, and Sv and SH are the horizontal

and vertical spacing between two nails and lo is the
transfer length that characterizes the relative rigidity of
the nail and soil and is defend as

lo = 4√ (4EI/ KsD)

E and I are the elastic modulus and the moment of

inertia of the nail respectively. Detailed experimental
investigations were carried out. The use of N for
design of nail wall is explored and is briefed below.
Schematic Diagram of Model Tank
Grain Size Distribution Curve
Model tank with Plywood Facing
Full view of Model tank after filling of Sand and Installation
of Nails
Loading Arrangement
 EXPERIMENTAL PROGRAM

1.Aim To study the effect of diameter of nail, position of

loading, and stiffness of nail

Nails used Mild steel, Nylon

Diameter of nail 3mm, 6mm and 8mm
Length of nail 400 mm
Spacing of nail Vertical 100mm
Horizontal 167 mm

Height of wall 500 mm

Type of loading Loading after installation of nails
Loading point 125 mm and 450 mm from the face
Before test After test
Failure Surface for loading at 125 mm from the face of the wall.
Failure surface for loading at 125 mm from the face of the wall.
Failure surface for loading at 50 mm from the face of the wall.
Failure surface for loading at 125 mm from the face of the wall.
Failure surface for loading at 125 mm from the face of the wall.
 Nail rigidity number
The Nail Rigidity number (N) for 6 mm, 7 mm
and 8 mm MS Nails are calculated and is listed.
The N value for 6mm nail is 26.13 and 8 mm is
53.32.
It is observed that for N values lesser than 26,
the failure surface is very close to log spiral.
Considering the N value of 7 mm dia nails, it is
concluded that if N value of a nailed wall system
is less than 40 the failure surface is log spiral
and greater than 40, the failure surface is
simplified wedge.
 Nail rigidity number
Further increase in N value reduces the failure
surface distance, from the crest or increases the
angle of simplified active wedge surface at the toe.

This Nail rigidity number N, includes the height of

nailed wall.

Increase in the height of the nailed wall, with all

other parameters remains the same, the N value get
decreased.

This is due to the scale effect and is considered.

 Scale Factor for Prototype Nailed Soil Wall
To make use of the observation made in the
experimental investigations, the nail rigidity number of
a prototype wall of height 2m to 9m was considered
and scale factor between the model and prototype was
calculated.
Figure 8 shows the relation between wall height and
scale factor for two different types of nail. The scale
factor is constant for different dry density of sand and
were verified by considering the recommend Ks values
of loose and medium dense dry sand. The data used to
determine the scale factor are listed on Table.2
Table 2 Details of model wall and prototype wall
parameters

Model
ModelNailed
Nailedwall parameters
wall parameters Prototype
PrototypeNailed
Nailedwall
wallparameters
parameters

H=H=0.5m, 3, 3 L/H =0.8, H= 9m, γ=17kN/m3, L/H =0.8,D=100

0.5m,γ=17kN/m
γ=17kN/m , L/H =0.8, H= 9m, γ=17kN/m3, L/H
D=8 mmmm
D=8 mm
=0.8,D=100 mm
Sv and SH S=H0.1 m and 0.167 m, m, SvSand S =1 m, K (D) =203500 kN/m 3
Sv and = 0.1 m and 0.167 v and H S H =1 s m, K s(D) =203500
Ks(D)=203500kN/m3, 3 Ks(M)=450000kN/m 3,
Ks(D)=203500kN/m , kN/m3
Ks(M)=450000kN/m3
Ks(M)=450000kN/m3 Ks(L)=12750kN/m3
Ks(M)=450000kN/m3,
Ks(L) =12750kN/m 3, =0.56 m, Ec = 22..36*106 kN/m3
lo Ks(L)=12750kN/m3
Ks(L) =12750kN/m3,
lo =0.145 m, m, I l=4908.74*10 -9 m4 3
lo =0.145 o =0.56 m, E c = 22..36*106 kN/m
Es=Es=
200*106 kN/m 3
200*106 kN/m3 I =4908.74*10 -9 m4
I =2.01*10 -10 m4 4
I =2.01*10 -10 m
 0.9
0.8
0.7
Scale factor

0.6
0.5 Grouted Nail of
0.4 100mm dia of M20
0.3 grade of concrete
0.2 Driven Nail of
0.1 16mm dia
0
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Wall Hight in m

Figure.8 Scale factor for different height of nailed soil

wall
 Design of nailed soil wall based on nail rigidity
number
To design a nailed soil wall using nail rigidity number
the following procedure in used.

The Nail rigidity number for rigid behavior of wall is

40 from experimental investigation.

Scale factor for 9 m wall : 0.16

Nail rigidity number of 9 m wall: 6.4
For N = 6.4, for 100 mm grouted nail, the spacing is
1.2 m.
 Validation of the proposed method of
design

To check the validity and suitability of this

proposed method of design analysis was
done using SNAILZ program.

The input data used for the analysis and

design are summarised in Table.3
Table 3. Input parameters for Validation of
SNAILZ of Program

Property Value
Vertical Height of wall H, m 9
Soil Type Medium dense Sand
Cohesion C,Kpa 0,0
Friction Angle in degree 38
Unit weight kN/m3 1800 kg/m3
Grade of Steel Fe 415
Nail Spacing Sv X Sh, mm 1.2X1.2
Nail Length L, m 7.2
Diameter d, mm 16
Drill hole diameter 100
Nail Inclination in Degree 0°
Punching shear capacity kN 150
Table 4. Summary of output of SNAILZ programme

Depth Distance from face of Nailed soil wall

m 1.8 3.6 5.4 7.2 9.0 10.8 12.6 14.4 16.2 18.0
0.5 174 208 175 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
1.7 174 208 221 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
2.9 174 208 221 103 22 0 0 0 0 0
4.1 174 208 211 215 153 125 31 0 0 0
5.3 174 208 221 248 254 251 185 11 44 0
6.5 174 208 221 248 254 251 243 231 271 170
7.7 174 208 221 248 254 251 243 231 271 205
8.9 174 208 221 248 254 251 243 231 217 205

F.S 2.39 1.99 1.87 1.67 1.64 1.65 1.71 1.80 1.91 2.02
The output obtained from SNALS programme is
summarized in Table.4.The global factor of safety
obtained in 1.72 and the local stability obtained are
greater than 1.5.
 Conclusion

The basic concept, construction

sequence and stability analysis of soil nail
wall is summarized.

A simplified design method is also

presented.
 References:
FHWA (2003), “Soil NAIL walls”, Geotechnical Engineering
circular No 7, Report No FHWAO-IF-03-017, Federal
Highway Administration.
Juran I., Gerge.B.Khalid F. and Elias V. (1990a): “Kinematical
Limit Analysis for Design of Soil Nailed Structures”, J. of
Geotechnical Engineering, ASCE, vol. 116, No 1, pp. 54-71.
Juran I., Gerge.B.Khalid F. And Elias V. (1990b): “Design of
Soil Nailed Retaining Structures, Design and Performance of
Earth Retaining structures”, J. of Geotechnical Engineering,
ASCE, Vol 116 pp. 54-71.
 SNAILZ Program. http://
www.dot.ca.gov/hq/esc/geotech

Swami Saran (2005), “Reinforced soil and its

Engineering Application”. I.K International Pvt Ltd.
New Delhi ISBN. 81-88 237-55-8

Premalatha K and Muthukumar K, “Simplified

Method of Design of Nailed Soil Wall”, kp1-kp10 -
vol-1 Proceedings of international conference at
Geo- Florida – 20-22 Feb 2010.Florida,USA.
Failure due to Insufficient Length
Erosion of soil from other side
Due to rain
Field Activities