Retaining Structures and Types

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Retaining Structures

Introduction and overview

Retaining structures such as retaining walls, basement walls, and bulkheads are commonly encountered in foundation engineering, and they may support slopes of earth mass.A retaining wall is a structure designed and constructed to resist the lateral pressure of soil, when there is a desired change in ground elevation that exceeds the angle of repose of the soil. A basement wall is thus one kind of retaining wall.

Proper design and construction of these structures require a thorough knowledge of the lateral forces that act between the retaining structures and the soil mass being retained.Retaining walls are used to prevent the retained material from assuming its natural slope.

Retaining walls may be classified according to how they produce stability as reinforced earth, gravity wall, cantilever wall and anchored wall. At present, the reinforced earth structure is the most used particularly for roadwork .

Basic Components of Retaining Structure

• Facing unit – not necessary but usually used to maintain appearance and avoid soil erosion between the reinforces.

• Reinforcement – strips or rods of metal, strips or sheets of geotextiles, wire grids, or chain link fence or geogrids fastened to the facing unit and extending into the backfill some distance.

• The earth fill – usually select granular material with than 15% passing the no. 200 sieve.

Design of Retaining walls against overturning and sliding forces

Component of E.R. Wall