Indian Geotechnical Conference 2017 GeoNEst
14-16 December 2017, IIT Guwahati, India
Computer Aided Analysis and Design of Retaining Walls
Harshit Raj
A. K. 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 Analysis; Retaining wall; Stability; Backfill, Reinforced earth
1. Introduction
Retaining wall holds the loose earth or backfill in
position. It is used to resist the lateral pressure of soil. It
is used in basement and underground construction,
approach road of railway over bridge (ROB) and fly
over, abutment, road construction in hilly terrain, etc.
Analysis and design of retaining walls involve stability
checks and wall detailing. To achieve optimized wall
parameters, civil engineers normally assume a set of
data based on experience. The assumed data is then
checked for the stability of the wall. If the checks fail,
the corresponding data need to be changed and checked
again, until the stability checks are satisfied. Since it is a
repetitive and time-consuming task, it can be automated
to speed up the process. For this reason, a computer
program for the analysis and design of retaining walls is
a real need. This study presents the development of
computer program in c for the analysis and 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, have been considered under each wall
types: (i) vertical face in rear side, (ii) inclined face in
rear side. Separate analysis of reinforced earth retaining
wall using Geotextile, Metallic Strip and Geo-Grids as
reinforcing materials have also been considered in the
program. The program perform checks for stability on
trial sections and then design the acceptable section for
the given concrete strength and other parameters.
Results have been verified using illustrative examples.
Adnan (2002) developed program for reinforced earth
walls using precast concrete facing panels where as
Justin (2016) developed program of cantilever retaining
wall. Results are highly encouraging.
2. Motivation and Objective
Different related software is commercially available in
the market that is costly one, not case specific and
student friendly. It is also essential to educate the young
engineer and students about computer programming and
solution of complex field problems. Different types of
plain as well as reinforced earth retaining walls have
been considered under this program that will be a
veritable tool for the analysis and design, taking into
account of time saving and accuracy.
3. Methodology
The program for analysis and 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. 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 design of wall portions:
heel, toe and stem are performed. A high degree of
interaction has been provided into the program so that
the designer can change the shape of the wall, backfill
conditions and also make changes to the soil properties
as per requirement to get the optimum result.
4. Important Outcomes
The program gives outcomes for the stability and design
of the retaining wall in terms of: (a) active thrust,
passive thrust, point of action, pressure at base (b) final
geometry of the wall (c) factor of safety: overturning,
sliding, bearing capacity (d) details requirement of steel
reinforcement. In case of reinforced earth retaining wall,
program calculates the thickness, length, width, lap
length as well as vertical and horizontal spacing of the
reinforcing material and then checks the external
stability.
5. Conclusions
As a result of this study and computer programming, the
analysis and design of different types of retaining walls
can be done within no time. It is economical, time
saving and user friendly. Anyone can modify the
programme as per their site condition and utility of
retaining wall. Results are compared. Manual error in
calculations is omitted.
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, J. E. (2012) Foundation analysis and design,
McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.
Gosh, S. (2010): Active earth pressure on retaining wall
backfilled with c- soil, Indian Geotechnical Journal,
40(3), 201-205.
Mittal, S., Garg, K. G., Saran, S. and Pathak, A. N.
(2001) Rigid wall retaining bottom ash backfill with
Geogrid reinforcement, Indian Geotechnical Journal,
31(1), 88-100.