Tipe retaining wall (wikipedia)

Gravity, cantilevered, sheet pilling, anchored.

Teknik dalam retaining (wikipedia)

Soil nailing, soil strengthened, gabion meshes, mechanical stabilization.

Introduction

To many property owners, retaining walls might come off as something they aren’t aware of or
don’t pay much attention to. Retaining walls play a crucial role in protecting our structures from
collapsing and natural problems such as soil erosion. Soil collapse is dangerous and can put
your home at risk and weaken it greatly. If you do not have a retaining wall setup, contact a
suitable retaining wall contractor from Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens, or from the
surrounding locality.

This post aims to divulge the details involving retaining walls and the materials used in their
construction.
Retaining Walls

But the first thing is to get an idea of retaining walls. Retaining walls is a wall that is erected
after an embankment or an excavation to provide support to the structure and prevent the soil
from collapsing. As the name suggests, it ‘retains’ the soil structure, thereby preventing any
sudden movement which may weaken the base of the constructed structure.

Retaining walls are made of reinforced concrete, timber, stone or bricks, depending on the
level of protection needed. Retaining walls are also used to support terraced gardens and
similar structures.
Choice for Retaining Wall Material

As mentioned above, retaining walls can be made of a variety of structures. Each material
gives it a different level of stability. Retaining wall contractors in Brooklyn use all the commonly
used raw materials for wall building, and the necessity of each material is as follows:

 Concrete and Lime Mortar: This is suitable for retaining walls which are exposed to
water, dampness or heavy rainfall areas. Retaining walls made from this mixture gain
strength with exposure to moisture.
 Boulder and Stone: Mainly used for aesthetics rather than usability, as they give a
pleasing look to the area. They are more difficult to erect and require highly skilled retaining
wall contractors from Brooklyn to be able to build properly.
 Wood/Timber: Although they are a popular choice for retaining walls because of their
low cost of installation, they require more maintenance due to their weakness against
moisture-induced rotting and pest infestation that feed on timber.
The Four Different Types of Retaining Walls That Every Civil Engineer Must Know
Posted in Blog

Retaining walls are as the name suggests any wall that is designed to retain any material. The
material could be earth, water, anything else that needs to be retained. A common example of
a retaining wall in everyday life is basement walls, swimming pool walls, and landscape walls.

Before we discuss how to design retaining walls, I want you to watch a simple but excellent
video of how the soil fails behind the retaining wall. The video is courtesy of the British
Geological Survey.

This video perfectly shows the failure plane that forms at an angle behind the wall. In this video
the soil behind the wall is granular soil. It also emphasizes that what we do on paper is not just
a math problem, it is actually a structure that will be built and care should be given as to how
best to design it to prevent failure.

Isaac's Notes:
Today's post is a guest post done by a friend, RG Spaulding, PE over at StructuralCE. She is
a great structural engineer that has designed buildings, bridges, power plants, and more
throughout the country. Her complete bio can be found below this epic post. I'd love to have
more civil engineer guest posts on the site to help expand on topics that you find interesting! If
you have any feedback, or would like to guest post yourself don't hesitate to contact me at
isaac@civilengineeringacademy.com or on the Contact Page, and go support RG!
More...

Types of Retaining Walls

Here are the types of retaining walls that are build:

- Gravity Walls

- Cantilever Walls

- Counterfort Walls

- Tieback Walls

- Drilled Pier Walls

- Soldier Pile Walls

Of the above, Cantilever retaining wall, Tieback walls, Driller Pier walls and Solider pile walls
are the most commonly engineered walls. Gravity walls are mainly used for shorter
landscaping type of walls as it becomes less efficient for taller walls.

The main difference between cantilever retaining walls and the other walls mentioned is the
way the foundation is designed. Tie back walls are completely different retaining walls and rely
on pre-stress in ties that hold back the wall thereby retaining the soil.

Before one can design retaining walls, a little understanding in soil mechanics is essential.

Soil Parameters Needed

Soil mechanics and Assumptions: In order to design a retaining wall, understanding the soil
behavior is critical. The design engineer needs to know some basic soil parameters.

Soil Parameters needed:

- Soil Type (Granular of Cohesive)

- Unit Weight

- Angle of Friction

- Cohesion
What is cohesion? It is the binding ability of soil. According to OSHA.gov, cohesive soils is a soil
with high clay content. It is plastic when moist but becomes hard to break when dry. When dry,
cohesive soils can be excavated with almost vertical slopes. Good example of cohesive soil is
clay.

Granular soils are opposite to cohesive soils. The angle of internal friction plays a major role in
granular soils since their cohesion value is zero. Example of granular soil is sand. Below is an
image of granular soils and above is a cut in clay.
A Geotech is Your Best Friend
The Geotech usually takes samples of the soil over which a structure is to be built and gives
the results of the type of soil that is present at the site. One of the tests that Geotech uses to
find out the angle of internal friction of the soil is a Direct shear test.

Please watch the following video of direct shear test courtesy of Carleton University.

A Geotech will be your best friend when it comes to designing retaining walls. With a basic
understanding of soil properties and help of a reliable Geotech, you can get most of the
information you need to design retaining walls. Choosing a Geotech firm will depend on how
you are designing your wall. Some Geotech firms are geared towards "building design" and
some firms are geared towards "bridge design".

Even though both Geotechs will give you what you need for design, getting the values that can
be applied in your process will be much easier if you know how and which codes you are
designing the walls for. Building codes like IBC (International Building code) or local codes like
CBS (California Building code) are very different than Bridge codes like AASHTO (American
Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials).

For example, within the building design guidelines, the geotech will give, allowable soil
pressures, skin friction, active and passive pressures and end bearing values and skin friction
values for the foundation or piles if used.
A firm geared towards the bridge design industry will give values of soil layers and properties
of various soil layers (LPile values - LPile is a software program which is used to design pile
foundations by modelling the various layers of soil). Here is a sample of various soil layers
that you would expect to see in the Geotech's report.

So you ask, why would I need these layer values?

You would need these values if you cannot make your cantilever retaining wall work with the
standard foundation because it gets too uneconomical to have such a big footing or if there are
utility lines in the way that would prevent you from being able to build a big foundation.

Situations like these will require your walls to be supported by piles at certain intervals. In order
to design these piles you would need the various soil layers that the pile would be driven or
drilled through.

For building codes, most of the time, design is elastic and you can directly calculate the elastic
section properties and input them in any pile software program. I am using Lpile here because
that is the program I am familiar with. In LPile, instead of elastic section properties, one can
also input the cracked section properties for seismic design cases.

Here are a few screenshots of the LPile program courtesy of Ensoft Inc.
So when does one know what code to design these walls to? Building or Bridge? If these walls
are retaining soil that holds up a roadway or in the right of way of a highway then your wall
would come under the jurisdiction of transportation safety officials and would need to be
designed for AASHTO load combinations.

If that is not the case, then these walls would fall under the building code. Most of the time
what is not discussed in standard textbooks is that most of these walls have fences on top or in
case of walls holding up the soil that supports the roadway, then there are barriers or
guardrails on top of these walls.

So there are additional moments on the wall due to the fence or barrier which can impact the
design of the walls. Have you ever seen a crash test video? It will blow your mind away. Well,
in case you haven't watched one, please take a look at the following. These barriers on top of
walls transmit enormous forces from crash loads. This video is courtesy of Texas A&M
Transportation Institute. Check it out:
In this video you can see that there is a barrier on top of a MSE retaining wall (Mechanically
Stabilized Earth retaining walls), where soil is built up with reinforcing systems. This is slightly
different than cantilever walls. But I just want to show you the possibility of enormous amount
of impact forces that could be transferred if there is a barrier on top of your wall.

This is another classic reason we have various types of retaining walls. I cannot imagine
designing a cantilever retaining wall system with forces from barriers. It would have to be
pretty hefty and uneconomical.

So when an engineer is designing the walls, he/she has to take into account all kinds of loads
the walls will be subjected to. There are many different types of retaining walls to
accommodate the loading and soil conditions and obstructions in the way and the engineer
needs to discuss with the clients the pros and cons of using a particular system of wall and
steer them in the right direction.

If the wall falls under the jurisdiction of highway then you don't have to do much convincing.
Transportation authorities like CALTRANS (California Department of Transportation) or your
regional transportation authorities have well documented free resources available on their
websites as to what works in a certain situation.

Cantilever Retaining Wall

In this section we will take a simple cantilever retaining wall and discuss the concept of how
they are affected by the loads and how you have to design them to resist these loads that they
are subjected to.

What is a cantilever retaining wall? It is a wall that acts like a cantilever fixed at the bottom
foundation. Here is a sketch of cantilever retaining wall and for the sake of understanding the
basics lets assume an imaginary superman pushing the wall with all his strength.

Notice that if he was not standing on the foundation or if the foundation was very short, then he
could both push it or topple it over. Pushing force is represented by the left pointing arrow and
toppling is represented by the curved arrow. But because he is standing on portion of the
foundation and the foundation is large, he will have some difficulty making the wall topple.

The forces shown in Yellow and Orange are the forces that will naturally cause the wall to slide
(push) and overturn (topple). The force shown is yellow color is from soil pressure and the
forces shown in orange color is from live load surcharge.

Soil pressure can be "active" soil pressure or "At-rest" soil pressure. So what is the difference
between the "active" and "at-rest" soil pressure and how can you tell which pressure you
should design for?
You should always refer to the recommendations given by the soils engineer. When the wall is
flexible (meaning if the top of the wall rotates by 0.001 to 0.003 radians or if the top of the wall
deflects at the range of 0.001 h to 0.003 h where "h" is the height of the Retaining wall, then
the wall deflects and moves away enough from the soil retained that the horizontal soil
pressure decreases to the "active" pressure levels.

You should never assume that walls are always designed for active pressure. If the wall is too
stiff then you will be underestimating the soil pressure that the wall is subjected to. "At-rest"
pressure is typically greater than "active" pressure.

If there is a roadway or buildings near by to the retaining wall then the wall will also be
subjected to additional pressure called the Live load surcharge. This is shown in orange color
in the sketch above. If there is any buildings or structures close to the retaining walls then the
soils engineer will also recommend the loads coming from the foundation of those structures
that the walls have to be designed for.

So what prevents these walls from being pushed and toppled?

Well, see the small blue truncated triangle on the left side? That is the passive pressure.

Passive pressure (in pcf) is usually pretty large but notice that the area of the actual structure
that presses against the soil is pretty small so in reality the ability of passive pressure alone to
resist these forces is unrealistic.

So what else helps maintain the stability of the wall?

The friction force between the bottom of the foundation and soil plays a big part in resisting this
sliding force. In most text books coefficient of friction between soil and foundation is taken a
0.5 which is a relatively high number.

In reality a lot of soils engineers define this value to be much less than that. Once again soils
engineers play a big role in design of the retaining walls and often times they will not let the
design engineer add the effects of 100% passive and 100% friction together. One additional
item to keep in mind during design is that there is greater friction if the weight of the structure is
large so if you are trying to design the most efficient section it will come back to give you
problems in counteracting sliding forces.

Once your design takes care of overturning and sliding, the third thing you have to check for is
to make sure that the soil underneath the foundation can actually take these additional
stresses. The soil fill underneath the foundation is rated for a certain amount of allowable
bearing pressure. See the image below on how these overturning forces affect the soil
underneath the foundation.

In Case 1, there is no eccentricity and hence the soil under the footing is uniformly loaded.
fmax has to be less than Allowable bearing capacity.

In Case 2, there is Moment that causes eccentric loading on the footing. As long as the
eccentricity e<B/6, and fmax is less than allowable bearing capacity the footing size should be
adequate.

In Case 3, the moment is so large that the eccentricity of the footing is outside of the middle
third of the footing or in other words e>B/6. What this indicates is that the footing size is not
efficiently used. fmax should once again be less than the allowable bearing capacity but
footing size can be adjusted to make the maximum use of it.

When in any of the above cases fmax is greater than the bearing capacity of the soil, then the
soil underneath the footing fails. This should be avoided at all costs.

Another important topic in the design of retaining walls is actual drainage details. Most
retaining wall failures are caused due to improper drainage details.

Imagine what happens if the soil on the right side of the wall in the picture above is
water-logged due to drains clogged or no drains at all? There is additional pressure on the wall
due to water. The density of water is 62.4 pcf which is quite a big additional pressure on the
wall.

If the height of soil to be retained above the footing is "h". It is good practice to design the wall
to be 6" taller than the soil to be retained. The top of the footing also has to be a minimum of
12" below the top of soil on the toe side (side that shows point "A"). In order for you to
pictorially see what additional forces the wall could potentially be subjected to please see
sketch below.

When there is an earthquake the wedge of soil above the failure plane will cause additional
shear on the wall. This is an inverse triangle with larger forces acting on the top of the wall
which means the moments due to seismic forces (inverse triangular force) on the base of the
footing can be a huge addition to the moments due to the active pressure. The soils engineer
will actually give you the value of the seismic forces that act on the wall.
In order to calculate the forces that cause the wall to overturn, moment and shear are
calculated about the point "A" in the diagram above. Just from observation, you can tell that
the passive pressure is very small force to counteract the active forces causing the footing to
overturn and slide.

Your job as an engineer is to make sure that you design the wall and foundation to be strong
enough to resist these forces shown by the red arrows. Designing retaining walls is an iterative
process. Sometimes you are so close to your design working but not quite enough for sliding.
In those instances you have to compare costs to see what is the best alternative.

To add a shear key under the footing to engage more passive pressure or just make the
footing big enough to increase the frictional forces? It is a trial and error process, but take into
account what it will cost not just for materials but also labor to have to pour a shear key
(additional trenching, additional concrete, additional steel).

I hate to say, we are still only scratching the surface of retaining wall design. There is so much
to talk about. Here is a video of retaining wall collapse in Baltimore, Maryland. After you watch
the video, you can also read the blog post written by Dr. Dave Petley about this particular
retaining wall collapse. I believe this particular collapse was due to heavy rains and lack of
adequate drainage and the wall itself seems under designed for the loads that it was subjected
to.

It is good that no one got hurt during that collapse.

When Does A Cantilever Wall Not Work?

There are instances where these cantilever retaining walls cannot be used. Say for example
you are really close to property lines or if there is a buried pipe underneath that you discover
when you actually start doing site surveys.

Maybe there is a building or tower next to the wall and the foundation of that structure will
interfere with the foundation of retaining walls, etc. There are many reason why cantilever
walls might not work. In these situations, there are other options. Some of these options are
tieback walls, drilled pier walls, soldier pile walls, etc. Let's discuss a few.

Tieback Walls
What is a tieback wall?

It is a wall that is actually holding the soil in place with a network of ties (prestressing tendons).
Ties are placed in a grid fashion and usually at a 15 degree angle and are positioned to miss
the abutment piles. Ties are great option when the soil to be contained is near an abutment of
a bridge where the spacing is so restricted that huge foundations are impossible.

See sketch below:

Below sketch shows a close up of what makes the ties (image courtesy of Caltrans).

Each tie has the following components:

Prestressing steel: Transfers the wall reactions to the anchor zone in the soil through the
bonded length

Bond length: This is the zone where the steel is inside the grout bulb that is fixed and
transfers the load from the steel to the surrounding soil. This is also called the Anchor zone.
This bonded length has to extend past the failure plane of the soil.
Unbonded length: This is the portion of the steel that is free to elastically elongate and
thereby transfer the resisting force from the bonded area to the wall.

Wall anchorage: This usually is at the wall element. Has a plate and anchor head which is a
threaded nut and allows the steel to be prestressed and locked off.

Grout: Provided a medium through which load gets transferred to the soil and also protects
the pre-stressing steel from corrosion.

Because these tendons are angled, there will be a horizontal and vertical component of the
soil reactions. There is also additional vertical load due to the dead weight of the wall. So, for
stability of the wall, the design engineer has to take into account both these forces.

Tieback walls are comparatively much simpler to design than the other types of retaining walls.

Drilled Pier Walls

These are walls that rest on top of a cap beam or grade beam which is in turn supported by a
series of drilled piers that are spaced uniformly. The wall portion of the design is similar to the
cantilever retaining wall (the wall is fixed at the bottom to the grade beam) but in addition to
that the engineer has to make sure that the grade beam is sufficiently designed to take the
moments and shears from the wall and pass it onto the piers.

The grade beam will be subjected to some major torsion which has to be additionally checked.
The drilled piers are then designed using a program called LPile where all the different soil
layers and piles are modeled and subjected to the moments, shears and axial loads from the
walls.

The pile holes are drilled using an auger which is a huge drill. All the soil inside the hole is
removed and then the rebar cage is lowered into it and then the concrete is placed.For anyone
who would like to see an animation of the many different types of piles and their methods of
construction, here are some Youtube videos (courtesy of Hayward Baker Inc).

Here is an actual real life drilling video courtesy of Pearson Drilling Inc. You can see in the
video below that the site conditions are wet and so they are using a temporary steel casing in
order to prevent caving in of the soil and then insert the rebar cage and pour the concrete.
Once concrete is poured the temporary steel casing is removed.

The various types of defects that can happen in CIDH (Cast in drilled hole) piles is that the
walls of the hole can cave in while removing casing, or the concrete separates and forms
pockets of air holes. There might be air pocket in the existing soil adjacent to the pile that is
being drilled that is not visible but would end up leaking the poured concrete out of the drilled
pier.

Soldier Pile Walls

A soldier pile wall is similar to driller pier wall with the exception of a wide "W " or "H" section is
used in the pile instead of rebar cage. Wood lagging or wood sleepers spans between the
soldier piles and temporarily hold up the soil until the permanent wall is installed.

The permanent wall could be either shorcrete or cast in place wall. The wood lagging
temporarily handles the soil pressure until the concrete walls cure and become effective. The
W or H sections are placed into a drilled hole and checked for plumbness and then structural
concrete fill is placed.

The timber lagging is placed as the soil gets excavated in stages and then the rebar cage for
the wall is placed with the wood lagging acting as a concrete form. Most cases the wall is
actually a shotcrete wall where concrete is pumped by a hose. The metal studs that are
welded to the flange of the H section will structurally tie the wall to the soldier pile.

In some instances (depending on the soil conditions) the H section is driven directly into the
ground instead of placing inside a drilled hole and filled with concrete. In most cases this would
just be a temporary condition.

The following video (courtesy of Piling & Civil Australia) shows animation of how the timber
lagging goes in stages as the soil gets excavated but this animation does not show the
concrete placed in the drilled hole.

Sometimes these soldier pile walls are combined with ties at the top to help maintain a smaller
H section. Ties basically will reduce the cantilever length of the wall thereby reducing the
moments and shears on the H section.

The next video shows an actual placement of the H section inside the drilled hole and concrete
placed into it. Courtesy of Helitech Civil Construction Division

Conclusion
I hope you found this post useful. Thanks to Isaac for letting me come here as a guest blogger
and share some of what I know with all of you. If you liked it, please share it with people who
may be interested in it.

I hope to add the actual detailed design process of all these retaining walls into my course I'm
creating. If you want to learn more about it you should check it out. You can learn something
new as well as obtain continuing education credits!

As always, thanks for reading and please visit me at StructuralCE.

(THE FOUR DIFFERENT TYPES OF RETAINING WALLS)

A PROPER BREAKDOWN OF THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF RETAINING WALLS

The build of retaining walls consists of materials like masonry, stone, brick, concrete, vinyl,
steel or timber. Certain areas have topography that varies from slightly rolling to
mountainous. For such areas, retaining walls allow the construction of steps or level areas.

Retaining walls had been used by ancient Roman civilization in the construction of roads.
Their extensive use can be found in many castles in Europe as well. Since then, there were
many types of retaining wall construction which have been used and improved over time.
Gravity Walls
Gravity walls use their mass or weight to resist the pressure exerted by the earth behind
them. These walls usually have an average height of three to four feet. They are made from
mortar-less stone or masonry units.

Gravity is able to hold back the earth or soil, due to its construction. These walls consist of a
volume of materials. These materials are stacked together in the making of the walls. The
weight or force of friction that is created by these materials is greater than the force exerted
by the soil. The thickness of the wall at the base exceeds that at the top. A process known
as 'battering' helps the walls to improve stability by leaning back into the retained soil. In this
process, as the walls get taller they slant backwards. Battering is done to prolong the
lifespan of gravity walls, which otherwise would tilt outward. Construction of gravity walls
demands a high quantity of building materials. That is the reason these walls are difficult to
build, and get more cumbersome as they get higher.
Cantilever Retaining Walls
Cantilever walls are among the taller retaining walls, and are single layer walls. Here, the
walls have uniform thickness and are tied to a footing. Properly engineered cantilever walls
hold back sufficient amount of soil. Typical basements in a house are an example of these
retaining walls.

Cantilever walls are manufactured in the form of an inverted 'T'. The word 'cantilever' means
'projecting horizontal beam fixed at one end only'. Here, it means that the walls transform
horizontal pressure from behind the wall into vertical pressure on the ground below. The
footer of cantilever walls should be wide enough to prevent the wall from tipping. The
thickness of not only the footer but also that of the wall is important. The walls are built with
steel-reinforcement in both the footing and wall structures. Cantilever retaining walls are
and should be designed only by structural engineers. They are not meant for self-building
purposes.
Sheet Piling Retaining Walls

For areas having soft soils and tight spaces, sheet piling retaining walls are mostly utilized.
Materials such as steel, vinyl or wood planks go into the making of these types of retaining
walls.

The statistics of the walls include one-third portion above the ground and the rest (two-third)
below ground level. A cable or a rod is used as a tie-back anchor to the walls. The rods are
placed at a distance and tied to the back of the walls. Hydrostatic pressure is one of the
main causes of the instability of the walls. So to eliminate this drawback, proper drainage
has to be ensured during construction.
Counterfort Retaining Walls
Counterfort retaining walls are similar in construction to cantilever walls. However, these
types have one additional benefit in the strength provided by triangular walls.

The top of the wall and the back of the footer are joined by these triangular structures. The
three structures of the footers, retaining walls and the additional walls are incorporated by
reinforcing steel. The support provided by the triangular wall extends the durability of the
counterfort retaining walls. This is because the additional support keeps the walls attached
to the footers. These retaining walls also are best built by engineers only.
Concrete Retaining Walls
These types are common in gardens and other outdoor landscapes. They offer better
support for vertically-slanting slopes.

Concrete retaining walls are high-built and have deeper and heavier soil underneath them.
These properties make them offer better resilience and solidity. These walls require greater
base depth so as to create a better foundation. Properly installed concrete retaining walls
do not face problems like tilting, bowling or cracking. They are also not susceptible to
climate-induced degradation.
Block Retaining Walls
For enclosing an area in a garden, block retaining walls are the most suitable. These walls
are of two types. Modular retaining walls, and segmental retaining walls. They have
interlocking concrete units to hold back the load of the soil. Similar to gravity walls, they use
the force of gravity to resist overturn and sliding. The nature of the walls prevents
hydrostatic pressure as well.
Rock Retaining Walls
For leveling flower beds in gardens, you might consider installing rock retaining walls. The
rocks and stones that are used in the construction of these walls must suit the landscape.

When rocks are stacked together, spaces are left between the rocks. These spaces or gaps
are filled with the soil mix. If plants are allowed to grow in between the rocks, it will
strengthen the walls. Growing roots will prevent soil from becoming loose, and help prevent
soil erosion.
Cinder Block Retaining Walls

Cinder block are also used for retaining walls and gardens. Here, the cinder blocks are
reinforced with steel bars embedded in a concrete foundation.

The wall is built upon a 1-foot deep flat-boxed shaped trench. The foundation is double in
size than that of the trench. The steel bars are placed in the form of an 'L' shape. The cinder
blocks are placed using mortar and a trowel. As cinder blocks are hollow, the steel bars rise
through them when the blocks are laid. Post construction of the walls, facades of stones or
bricks may be added to make the walls attractive. This is done by most people, as cinder
blocks are not so attractive.
Terraced Retaining Wall
Those who have yards with deep slopes usually have a hard time growing plants or install
architectural structures on them. For such uneven landscapes, terraced retaining walls fit
the bill.

An internal tie system helps in bracing the walls and locking them in position. There is no
limit to the height of the wall, as it is the width that decides the installation. Materials that can
be used include concrete blocks, timber, brick
or natural stone blocks. Such walls can be put to use in various creative ways. One good
example could be retaining water and making it a small pond filled with fish and water plants.

As you can infer from the above description you have a wide variety of retaining walls to
choose from. Keeping your landscape in mind, go for a suitable retaining wall. And as
mentioned earlier, it is wise to hire professional structural engineers for the job.
Dinding Penahan (Retaining Wall)
Kamis, 10 November 2016

Konstruksi dinding penahan merupakan salah satu jenis konstruksi sipil

yang berfungsi untuk menahan gaya tekanan aktif lateral suatu tanah
maupun air. Oleh karena itu suatu konstruksi dinding penahan haruslah
direncanakan dan dirancang agar aman terhadap gaya-gaya yang berpotensi
menyebabkan kegagalan struktur. Pada prinsipnya dinding penahan
menerima gaya-gaya berupa momen guling, gaya berat sendiri, gaya lateral
tanah/air aktif -pasif, gaya gelincir/sliding dan gaya angkat (uplift). Dengan
demikian kestabilan suatu konstruksi dinding penahan harus dirancang agar
dapat menahan gaya-gaya tersebut.
 Dinding penahan dalam praktik konstruksi sipil memiliki banyak jenis
tergantung dari aplikasi dan kasus yang akan digunakan baik untuk menahan
tekanan tanah pada tebing/slope, timbunan/embankment, konstruksi sub
structure /basement, kolam tampungan retensi/pond, konstruksi pembendung
air, penahan transpor sedimen pada sungai dsb. Pada dasarnya dinding
penahan memiliki beberapa fungsi antara lain:

 Menahan tekanan lateral tanah aktif (Active Lateral Force Soil) yang dapat
berpotensi menyebabkan terjadinya keruntuhan lateral tanah misalnya
longsor/landslide.

 Menahan tekanan lateral air (Lateral Force Water) yang dapat berpotensi
menyebabkan terjadinya keruntuhan lateral akibat tekanan air yang besar.

 Mencegah terjadinya proses perembesan air/seepage secara lateral yang

diakibatkan oleh kondisi elevasi muka air tanah yang cukup tinggi. Dalam hal
ini juga berfungsi dalam proses dewatering yaitu dengan memotong aliran air
(Flow net) pada tanah (Cut Off).

Adapun jenis-jenis konstruksi dinding penahan yang umumnya digunakan

dalam praktek rekayasa konstruksi sipil antara lain:

 1. Dinding Penahan Tanah Massa (Gravity Retaining Wall), jenis dinding

penahan tanah ini banyak digunakan untuk menahan tekanan tanah lateral
pada timbunan tanah maupun pada tebing-tebing yang landai sampai terjal.
Prinsip kerja dari dinding penahan ini cukup unik yaitu mengandalkan bobot
massa dari badan konstruksinya dengan demikian kestabilan dari struktur
dapat lebih stabil dikarenakan bobotnya yang berat dalam menahan tekanan
tanah lateral. Material penyusun yang digunakan pada jenis konstruksi ini
biasanya berupa material pasangan batu ataupun beton bertulang (Reinforced
Concrete).
 2. Dinding penahan Tanah Tipe Jepit (Cantilever Retaining Wall), Jenis
konstruksi dinding penahan tanah tipe ini umumnya digunakan untuk menahan
tekanan tanah pada timbunan maupun pada tebing. Prinsip kerja dari jenis
dinding penahan jenis ini yaitu dengan mengandalkan daya jepit/fixed pada
dasar tubuh strukturnya. Oleh karena itu ciri khas dari dinding penahan jenis
kantilever yaitu berupa model telapak/spread memanjang pada dasar
strukturnya yang bersifat jepit untuk menjaga kestabilan dari struktur penahan.
Umumnya konstruksi dinding penahan tipe jepit dibuat dari pasangan batu
maupun dengan konstruksi beton bertulang.

3. Dinding Penahan Tipe Turap (Sheet Pile), jenis konstruksi dinding penahan tipe
turap merupakan jenis konstruksi yang banyak digunakan untuk menahan tekanan
tanah aktif lateral tanah pada timbunan maupun untuk membendung air (coverdam).
Jenis konstruksi tipe turap/sheet pile umumnya terbuat dari material beton pra tegang
(Prestrees Concrete) baik berbentuk corrugate-flat maupun dari material baja.
Konstruksi dinding penahan tipe sheet pile berbentuk ramping dengan mengandalkan
tahanan jepit pada kedalaman tancapnya dan dapat pula dikombinasikan dengan
sistem angkur/Anchord yang disesuaikan dengan hasil perancangan. Dalam
pelaksanaannya kedalaman tancap sheet pile dapat mencapai elevasi sampai tanah
keras.
4. Dinding Penahan Bronjong (Gabion), konstruksi dinding penahan tanah jenis ini
merupakan konstruksi yang berupa kumpulan blok- blok yang dibuat dari
anyaman kawat logam galvanis yang diisi dengan agregat kasar berupa batu batu
kerikil yang disusun secara vertikal ke atas dengan step-step meyerupai
terasering/tanga-tangga. Kelebihan dari dinding penahan jenis gabion selain
berfungsi untuk menahan tekanan tanah juga berfungsi untuk memperbesar
konsentrasi resapan air ke dalam tanah (Infiltrasi).
 5. Dinding Penahan Tipe Blok Beton (Block Concrete), jenis dinding
penahan tanah tipe blok beton merupakan kumpulan blok-blok beton masif
padat yang disusun secara vertikal dengan sistem pengunci/locking antar blok
yang disusun. Umumnya blok beton dibuat secara modular di fabrikasi berupa
beton precash dan kemudian proses pemasangannya di lakukan di lokasi - in
situ.
 6. Dinding Penahan Tanah Tipe Diaphragm Wall, jenis konstruksi dinding
penahan tanah tipe dinding bertulang (Diaphragm Wall) merupakan jenis
konstruksi dinding penahan yang terbuat dari rangkaian besi beton bertulang
yang dicor di tempat atau dengan sistem modular yang dibuat untuk
membendung (cover) suatu konstruksi bawah tanah (sub-strucure) khusunya
pada konstruksi basement suatu bangunan. Diaphragm wall dapat
dikombinasikan dengan sistem anchord untuk menambah daya dukung
terhadap tekanan aktif lateral tanah juga berfungsi dalam proses dewatering
untuk memotong aliran muka air tanah (Cut-Off Dewatering).
 7. Dinding Penahan Tanah Continguous Pile dan Soldier Pile, jenis
konstruksi penahan continguous pile dan soldier pile merupakan konstruksi
dinding penahan tanah yang digunakan untuk menahan tekanan lateral tanah
aktif pada konstruksi bawah tanah seperti pada konstruksi basement suatu
bangunan sama seperti jenis konstruksi dinding penahan diaphragm wall.
Continguous pile dan soldier pile juga biasanya dikombinasikan dengan sistem
ankur/anchord untuk meningkatkan daya dukung terhadap tekanan aktif lateral
tanah dan berfungsi sebagai pemutus aliran air bawah tanah (Cut Off).
Continguous pile dibuat di tempat in-situ dengan sistem bored pile berupa
rangkaian besi beton bertulang maupun menggunakan profil baja serta
dikombinasikan dengan bentonited dan dirangkai membentuk dinding
penahan yang padat.
 8. Revetment, jenis konstruksi sederhana yang berfungsi untuk perkuatan
lereng/tebing maupun untuk melindungi dari gerusan aliran sungai dan ombak
pada alur pantai. Konstruksi jenis ini pada dasarnya tidak memiliki fungsi
utama dalam menahan tekanan aktif lateral tanah namun lebih pada fungsi
proteksi terhadap efek gerusan/erosi yang dapat merusak kestabilan
lereng/tanggul yang tentunya dapat berpotensi menimbulkan terjadinya
longsor/land slide.

Dari paparan yang telah dijelaskan di atas tentunya jenis-jenis konstruksi

dinding penahan memiliki karakteristik berbeda-beda berdasarkan pada
fungsi dan kegunaannya masing-masing yang dapat diterapkan berdasarkan
kasus konstruksi yang telah direncanakan. Oleh karena itu seorang insinyur
sipil diharapkan mengetahui karakteristik jenis-jenis konstruksi penahan serta
kegunaannya dalam praktik konstruksi di lapangan. Semoga dengan artikel
yang saya berikan ini dapat bermanfaat bagi pembacanya. Terima Kasih.

Oleh: James Thoengsal, S.T., M.T., IPP.