Retaining Structures

Course lectures thanks to Dr. Aldo Madaschi & Dr. Alberto Bisson

Ecole Nationale Superieure des Travaux P ublic - Yaoundé

JULY 2023

Academic Year 2022-2023

Christian NOUBISSI, PhD

Personal information
Education:

MSc in Geotechnical Engineering – ENSTP/University of Padova

(2015)
MSc in Soil and Rock Mechanics – ENPC France (2018)
PhD in Tunneling in Urban areas and AI – Université Paris Saclay
(2022)
Currently Geotechnical Specialist for TotalEnergies

Professional interests:
§ Excavation in urban areas
§ Tunneling
§ Foundations
§ Retaining structures
§ Artificial Intelligent
§ Uncertainty quantifications
Course Outline

› Types of retaining structures:

gravity walls, embedded walls, reinforced soil structures, anchored earth, soil
nailing. Criteria for the selection of the wall type.
› General behaviour of retaining structures:
evolution of the factor of safety during the wall construction, active and passive
state, analytical approaches to earth pressure determination, progressive failure,
wall movements and mobilised earth pressure.
› Soil properties and selection of parameters:
shear strength of soils, dilatancy and critical state, evolution of the shear
strength, short-term and long-term conditions, soil stiffness. Selection of shear
strength parameters and soil-wall friction angle.
› Classical earth pressure theory:
Coulomb theory, Rankine theory for horizontal and inclined ground surface.
Effect of effective cohesion and of soil-wall friction. Exercises.
› Water and retaining structures:
Typical ground water conditions, seepage and water pressure calculations, wall
loading from water, groundwater level conditions. Hydraulic instability (uplift,
piping and internal erosion). Types of drainage techniques.
Course Outline

› Lateral pressure due to external loads:

evaluation of the effect of external loads on the retaining structures: elastic
solutions, plastic solution, and empirical approaches. Lateral pressures due to
compaction, Broms theory of soil compaction, Ingold simplified theory. Exercises.
› Global and local instability and definition of failure:
types of instabilities affecting a retaining structure, selection of geotechnical
parameters, limit equilibrium analysis of global stability. Concept of failure.
Providing for uncertainty: the concepts of safety and reliability. Lumped and
partial factors of safety. Geotechnical limit state design using partial factors.
› Design and verification of retaining structures:
gravity walls, embedded walls, composite walls, anchored walls and other support
systems. Exercises.
› Introduction to tunneling:
Main classification of tunnels, type of tunnels, tunnel in urban areas and
effect on vicinities.
› Introduction to Finite Element Method for geotechnical problems:
theoretical bases and application of FEM to geotechnical problems, modelling
hypothesis, geometrical and constitutive definition of the model, interpretation of
analyses results.
Bibliography

› Earth pressure and Earth-Retaining Structures

C.R.I. Clayton, R.I. Woods, A.J.Bond, and J. Milititsky
Third Edition, CRC Press (2014)
› Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice
K. Terzaghi, R.B. Peck, and G. Mesri
Third Edition, John Wiley and Sons (1996)
› Soil retaining structures. Development of models for structural analysis
K . J . Bakker
A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, Bookfield (2000)
› Basics of Retaining Wall Design
H. Brooks
Eighth Edition, HBA Publications (2010)

› Eurocode 7: Geotechnical design. ENV 1997

Schedule of the course
Exam

The exam consists of two parts:

1. Exercises: exercises on the topics focused during the course
2. Theory: theoretical questions on the entire program

To pass the exam it is necessary to obtain a positive mark for both Exercise and
Theory parts.

Formulas, tables and design charts needed for the resolution will be attached to
the exam.
During the exam you can use only a scientific calculator without any other
support (books, papers, notes are not allowed).
Types of retaining structures

1. Gravity walls
a. Mass concrete gravity walls
b. Gabions
c. Crib walling
d. Interlocking block walls
e. Semi-gravity concrete walls
f. Reinforced concrete cantilever walls
g. Counterfort walls
h. Buttressed walls
2. Embedded walls
a. Trenching systems
b. Sheet-pile walls
c. Bored pile walls
d. Diaphragm walls
3. Reinforced soil (Mechanical Stabilized Earth MSE) structures
4. Anchored earth
5. Soil nailing
1a. Mass concrete gravity walls
Front of
wall Backfill

Toe of wall
H eel

Backfill Mass Backfill

concrete lifts

Figure: Cross sections through typical mass concrete walls: (top) inclined back of wall;
(bottom left) vertical back of wall; (bottom right) with footing cast in trench (Clayton
et al., 2014).
1b. Gabion retaining wall

(a) (b)

c. 5°
Backfill

Figure: Gabion retaining wall. (a) Cross-section through a gabion wall. (b) Detail of
gabions and fill (Clayton et al., 2014).
1c. Crib retaining wall (Mur de soutènement à caisson)
Pre-cast
concrete
header
Pre-cast
concrete
stretcher

In-situ
concrete
footing

Common Selected
fill granular
backfill

Footing

Figure: Crib wall construction. Above: components. Below: general layout (Clayton et
al., 2014).
1d. Interlocking block wall
Free-draining
granular backfill
Coping
(cap)
block

Battered
face

Pre-cast Backfill
concrete or
interlocking natural
blocks ground

Compacted Slotted
granular base drain
pipe

Figure: Interlocking block wall. Above: examples of blocks. Below: general layout
(Clayton et al., 2014).
1e. Semi-gravity concrete walls
Steel reinforcement

Backfill

Steel reinforcement

Backfill

Figure: Cross sections through typical semi-gravity concrete walls (Clayton et al.,
2014).
1f. Cantilever walls

Stem

H eel H eel

Alternative
K ey location for
shear key

Figure: Cross sections through typical (inverted) T-shaped and L-shaped reinforced
concrete cantilever walls (Clayton et al., 2014).
1g. Counterfort walls
>200 mm

H/14–H/12
H
1:50

0.3–0.6 H

>200 mm

Figure: Counterfort reinforced concrete wall dimensions (Clayton et al., 2014).

2a. Trenching systems
Steel sheets driven from ground level

Adjustable struts installed

Wallings as excavation proceeds

Figure: Braced excavation for services installation (Clayton et al., 2014).

2b. Sheet-pile walls (1)

Sheet piling
T ie rod

Cantilever sheet-pile wall Jetty or mole

C oncrete
relieving
T ie rod platform
Anchor
block

B earing
piles

Anchored sheet-pile retaining wall Relieving platform wall

Figure: Cross sections through some typical permanent sheet-pile structures (Clayton
et al., 2014).
2b. Sheet-pile walls (2)

12– 20 m
5–12 m T ie rod

Turnbuckle
Anchor
block or
beam

Single anchored wall Multiple anchored wall

<9 m

A nchor rod Tension

anchor
pile
Soil or
rock
anchor

Soil or rock anchors Raking pile anchor

Bearing
piles

A -frame anchor

Figure: Anchored sheet-pile wall schemes (Clayton et al., 2014).

2c. Bored pile walls

(a)

(b)

(c)

Figure: Plan view through typical bored pile wall configurations: (a) intermittent, (b)
contiguous, (c) secant. Anchored and propped bored pile retaining walls (d) (Clayton
et al., 2014).
2c. Diaphragm walls

Guide
trench

1 2 3 4 5 6

1. Guide trench installed and bentonite plant commissioned

2. Excavation of primary panels, under full head of bentonite
3. Reinforcement and stop end tubes lowered into excavated panels
4. Concrete tremied to the base of the panel
5. After concrete has gone off, stop ends removed
6. Secondary panels excavated, reinforced and concreted

Figure: Diaphragm wall construction. (Clayton et al., 2014).

3. Reinforced soil (MSE) structures
Wrap around

Selected backfill

Gabions

Geotextile

Pre-cast
concrete
facing
elements

Figure: Geotextile reinforced soil walls. (Redrawn from Hausmann, M.R., Engineering
Principles of Ground Modification. McGraw-Hill, New York, 1990.) (Clayton et al.,
2014).
4. Anchored earth
H ot-dipped
Pre-cast concrete
galvanised
anchor blocks
reinforcing
bars
About 7 m (varies)

W ell-compacted
Hexagonal
granular fill
facing units

Drainage
About 5 m (varies)
blanket

Figure: An example of anchored earth from the KL-Karak Highway, Malaysia. (Clayton
et al., 2014).
5. Soil nailing
(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Shotcrete
facing

(e)
Nails

Figure: Soil nailing. (a) Excavation; (b) shotcreting; (c) nail installation; (d)
excavation; (e) completed wall. (Clayton et al., 2014).
Preliminary selection of wall type

The factors which may influence the choice of structure are (Clayton et al.,
2014):
a. Height of the ground to be supported
b. Type of retained soil
c. Type of foundation soil
d. Groundwater regime
e. Adjacent structures
► Magnitude of external loads
► Allowable movements
f. Available space for construction and construction plant
g. Experience and local practice
h. Available construction techniques and equipment
i. Cost