EAG345 : TYPES OF RETAINING WALL

PROF DR FAUZIAH AHMAD

SCHOOL OF CVIL ENGINEERING

UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA
 Retaining Walls
An earth retaining structure can be considered
as one of four types:
Gravity Walls
Embedded Walls
Reinforced Soil Walls
Hybrid Systems
 Gravity Walls
Gravity walls rely on their significant mass and
geometrical dimensions for stability against, for
example, sliding, overturning. Little or no
contribution to stability is made from the passive
resistance of any soil acting on the face of the wall.

Mass Construction
Semi-Mass Construction
Reinforced Construction
 Gravity Walls
Mass construction walls can be broken down
into 5 types:

Concrete
Concrete with Masonry Facing
Unreinforced Masonry
Gabions
Crib
Concrete Gravity Walls
Mass concrete walls are
suitable for retained heights
up to 3 m. The cross section
shape of the wall is affected
by stability, the use of space
in front of the wall, the
required wall appearance and
method of construction.
 Gabions
Gabions are free-draining walls
constructed by filling large
baskets with broken stone.
Retention is achieved from a
combination of the stones
weight, and its interlocking and
frictional strength. The wall
face is battered at
approximately 6 degrees from
the vertical. The maximum
height is approximately 10 m.
They are constructed with
either a stepped face or a
stepped back.
 Bin Wall or Crib Wall
Crib walls are constructed by
interlocking individual boxes
made from timber,(temporary
works), pre-cast concrete or
metal members.
The boxes are filled with
crushed stone or other coarse
granular materials to create a
free-draining structure.
 Semi-Mass Construction
Semi-mass construction is a compromise
between simplicity of mass concrete and
low material content of reinforced concrete.
Can be cost effective if reinforcement
details are kept simple.
 Reinforced Construction
Reinforced concrete and reinforced masonry walls
on spread foundations are gravity structures in which
the stability against overturning is provided by the
weight of the wall together with the weight of the
retained material which rests on the slab

The following are the main types of wall:

Concrete Cantilever
Counterfort / Buttressed
Precast
Masonry
Prestressed
Concrete Cantilever
Cantilever walls or stem walls
of reinforced concrete are the
commonest type of gravity wall.
They are composed of a vertical
or inclined slab monolithic with
a slab base. Simple forms of
cantilever wall utilize the weight
of the earth or backfill on the
heel. This weight is added to the
concrete weight to provide
resistance against active thrust.
Counterfort / Buttressed
Counterfort walls are
cantilever walls strengthened
with counterforts monolithic
with the back of the wall slab
and base slab. The
counterforts act as tension
stiffeners and connect the
wall slab and the base to
reduce the bending and
shearing stresses.
Counterforts are used for
high walls with heights
greater than 8 to 12 m.
 Reinforced Soil Walls
Reinforced soils are used:
as an integral part of the design
as an alternative to the use of reinforced concrete or
other solutions on the grounds of economy or as a result
of the ground conditions
to act as temporary works
as remedial or improvement works to an existing
configuration.
This category covers walls which use soil,
reinforced with reinforcing elements, to provide a
stable earth retaining system and includes
reinforced soil and soil nailing.
 Soil Nailing
Constructing a soil nailed wall involves
reinforcing the soil as work progresses in the
area being excavated by the introduction of
passive bars, which essentially work in
tension. These are usually parallel to one
another and slightly inclined downward.
These bars can also work partially in bending
and by shear. The skin friction between the
soil and the nails puts the latter in tension.
 Soil Nailing
The Hickman Bluff has a
history of instability dating
back to the New Madrid
seismic activity of 1811-1812;
the instability has resulted in
crest of the bluff retreating 3
to 5 feet per year. This has
caused an approximately 400
ft. deep by 600 ft. deep wide
semi-circular recess in the
bluff and resulted in the
Hickman Bluff, Hickman, KY complete loss of Magnolia St.
in 1990.
Soil Nailing
 Soil nailing
Working from the top downward, a mass of
reinforced soil is gradually built up. In order to keep
the soil from caving in between the bars, some sort of
facing needs to be installed. This is generally made
with some shotcrete reinforced by a welded wire
mesh. This facing can be vertical, battered to a wide
variety of angles, or made up of a series of benches.
The passive bars are often referred to as "nails" and
the soil reinforcing technique is known as "soil
nailing."
 Soil Nailing

Over 100,000 S.F. of

permanent soil nailed wall
consisting of approximately 25
rows of soil nails, for a total of
over 1700 each 45 ft. long on
roughly a 6 ft. by 6 ft. grid, to
stabilize the upper and lower
bluff slopes. Approximately 60
horizontal drains at 70 ft. long
to lower the ground water table
Hickman Bluff, Hickman, KY within the Continental Deposits.
 Soil Nailing

Soil Nailed Retaining Wall Pittsburgh, PA

Reinforced Earth

Mechanically stabilized
earth walls are structures
which are made using
steel or geosynthetic soil
reinforcements which are
placed in layers within a
controlled granular fill.
 Mechanically stabilized earth walls
The combination of reinforcements and earth create a
composite structure which is internally stable as long as
sufficient reinforcements are placed to within the earth to
counteract the shear forces that result when soil is placed at
a 90 degree angle of repose.
Originally invented in the late 1960's by Henri Vidal a
French architect and engineer, Reinforced Earth which
consists of soil, steel strip soil reinforcements and precast
concrete facing panels was the first MSE system.
Since that time other systems utilizing different facing
systems (wire and concrete masonry blocks) and different
soil reinforcement types (welded wire mesh, geogrids,
geotextiles) have been used.
What is the difference between soil nailing and reinforced earth?

A soil nailed wall will have been built

downward with the soil being reinforced in
situ, while a Reinforced Earth wall is
constructed by building an embankment that
is then strengthened as the work progresses,
constitutes an essential difference.
Reinforced Earth
Reinforced Earth
 Hybrid Walls
These are walls which combine elements of both
externally stabilized walls (e.g. gravity walls) and
internally stabilized walls (e.g. reinforced soil).
Anchored Earth
Tailed Gabion
Tailed Concrete Block
Miscellaneous
 Hybrid Walls
Any wall which uses facing units (of any
type) tied to rods or strips (of any material)
which have their ends anchored into the
ground is an anchored earth wall. To aid
anchorage, the ends of the strips are formed
into a shape designed to bind the strip at the
point into the soil.
 Tieback walls
TIEBACKS and TIEDOWNS can be installed in virtually
any ground condition using rotary, percussion or down-the-
hole hammer tooling.
The critical design elements are the capacity (Kips), length
of unbonded zone, corrosion protection (Class I or II or
none), grout cover (usually 1/2"), and testing specs.
In the construction of tiebacks, bars or cables are placed in
predrilled holes with concrete grout.
Cables are commonly high strength, prestressed steel
tendons.
To protect the tie rod from corrosion, it is coated with paint
or asphaltic materials.
Tieback Anchor Wall

Columbia Tower, Seattle, Washington

Tiedback Wall

The modest 25 foot deep

exposed wall shown in the
above picture was actually
excavated to over 50 feet
deep prior to construction
of the subway tunnel box
built for the Metropolitan
Atlanta Rapid Transit
Authority.
Tailed Gabion
Gabion elements fitted to
geogrid 'tails' extending
into supported soil.
The first structure on
record to use a
combination of gabions
and mechanically
reinforced soil was built in
Sabah, Malaysia in 1979.
A vertical skin of gabions
was anchored to the
backfill using metal strips.
 Tailed Concrete Blocks
Concrete block facing
units fitted with
geogrid 'tails'
extending into
supported soil.
 Sheet Pile Wall
Steel sheet pile walls are
constructed by driving steel
sheets into a slope or
excavation. Their most
common use is within
temporary deep excavations.
They are considered to be
most economical where
retention of higher earth
pressures of soft soils is
required.
 Failure - Earthquake

Pavement deformation and damage to rock

retaining wall caused by seismic activity
Failure - Earthquake

Typical failure of a stone retaining wall