Literature Review

This section discusses about the background

information of the issues regarding the present research effect
and focus of the significance on current study. A literature review
has been conducted to evaluate various components of wall
design. An additional literature review identified case histories of
full-scale testing on walls. A large number of types of retaining
devices can be used for design, but their limitations,
recommendations and guidelines are scattered in the technical
literature.

A retaining device can be seen as a man-made construction

arrangement that prevents earth from moving. However, a
retaining device involves more than that. Retaining devices are
needed in a large number of engineering projects and are very
important in the development of land for construction. Sometimes
they are the unseen and underrated heroes of a great human-
feat, they help us give to the surface the shape that our designs
require. Retaining walls assist us in two basic scenarios: a fill or a
cut. Different grades are often required for our engineering
projects. Sometimes a fill has limited space, making long
embankments an unfeasible option. Retaining walls reduce the
slopes required for the difference in grade making the project
possible. On the other hand, cuts require retaining devices to
maintain stability or reduce settlements.

Before the 1970s, the predominant types of retaining devices for

permanent structures were gravity and cantilever walls (Cheney,
1990). Gould (1990) describes the advances from the end of the
Second World War until 1970. Most of the developments on
retaining devices were made in excavation support. Slurry
construction method and tieback anchoring were among the
improvements. He also traces the beginning of soil nailing to
France around 1972. The variety of choices for retaining devices
was yet to be seen. Since then, a wide variety of new
technologies have emerged. O Rourke and Jones (1990) describe
the changes and improvements of retaining devices for the next
twenty years. Excavation support, in-situ wall construction,
reinforced soils and soil nailing are the basic aspects they
assessed. Attention is drawn to the rapid growth occurred on
materials used in reinforced soils. Today, a wide variety of
retaining devices exist and are currently used for soil retention
throughout the world. Gravity walls, Mechanically Stabilized Earth
walls (MSE Walls), tieback walls and soil nailing, etc. are among
the design options.

These devices have their limitations. Recommendations and

guidelines are available on the design, when they can be used, or
the maintenance requirements needed for a particular device.
These recommendations are dispersed through the technical
literature. This scatter makes it complex to opt for the optimum
design on a project. Factors such as soil type, height, drainage,
durability, safety, construction and maintenance costs, etc. need
to be addressed. The engineer should have the objective to select
the best design for a given project. However, the appropriate
information should be quickly and readily accessible to make the
best decision. Therefore, a compendium and summary of
guidelines and limitations for each type of retaining device is of
practical interest.

This chapter analyzes the different types of retaining walls. A

literature review of the available retaining technologies is
presented. It is not the intention to provide a step-by-step design
code, but to show the basic design parameters and criteria for
each retaining structure. Finally, the process of the retaining
device selection is evaluated.

SCOPE OF PROGRAM
Here below is a brief description of the most prominent
capabilities of
the program
a) Determination of the maximum active soil thrust behind
retaining walls.
b) Determination of the passive soil thrust in front of retaining
walls.
c) Plotting thrusts of wedges of failure vs. various angles of
failure.
d) Designing retaining walls that resist all the forces resulting
from active
Soil thrusts and concentrated, uniformly distributed, trapezoidal
and triangular
surcharge.
e) Determination of walls resistance to overturning and sliding.
f) Plotting to scale the designed retaining walls and the wedges of
failure.

Following are the list of studies that

have been performed on the topic design of retaining wall:-

Papazafeiropoulos,George , Plevris , Vagelis and

Papadrakakis, Manolis (2013)
In this paper optimum design is performed for cantilever walls
retaining soil layers of two different heights, using numerical two-
dimensional simulations and a genet-ic algorithm. Numerical
simulations were performed using the finite element code
ABAQUS whereas for optimization purposes, the genetic algorithm
provided with MATLAB is utilized. For the calculation of the
seismic earth pressures, linear elastic soil, retaining wall stem and
wall foundation are assumed. The optimization procedure involves
four design variables that have to do with the wall geometry,
while the soil and wall material parameters and the frequency
range of interest are kept fixed. Structural and geotechnical
constraints as well as upper and lower bounds for the design
variables are imposed to ensure technical feasibility of the
solutions. The results on the optimum solutions were presented
and comparisons are made with the corresponding results
according to conventional seismic design methods. The numerical
results of the study provide a clear indication of the direct
dynamic interaction be-tween the retaining wall and the
surrounding soil, whereas the complexity of the optimization
problem itself is evident that justifies the necessity for a more
elaborate consideration of the optimum design of retaining walls,
especially if material and geometric non-linarites are taken into
account.

Basudhar, P.K. and Mohd.,Syed Ahmad (2008)

The paper pertains to the analysis of reinforced-earth walls using
the Finite Element Method (FEM). Numerical analysis of any
interface embodied problem is a complex task and FEM is likely to
be the most suitable for the purpose. In the analysis, the backfill
soil and the wall facing have been modeled using 4-noded linear
isoperimetric rectangular elements, while the geo synthetic
reinforcement is idealized by one-dimensional linearly elastic bar
element. The interaction of soil and reinforcement is simulated by
considering Goodmans zero thickness joint elements.
Predictions made with regard to the wall movement,Settlement of
the backfill surface and strains in the reinforcement for a bench
mark problem using the present analysis, have been found to
follow the trends of experimentally observed values. However,
comparison of the present predictions with other FEM results
reported in the literature showed a wide variation especially due
to the different kind of material behavior that has been
considered in the analyses. The present solution as well as the
other solutions showed large deviations from the measured
values of maximum wall movement,
backfill surface settlement and strains in the reinforcement. In
this paper the details of the study are presented. Large deviation
of the predicted behavior from the observed values shows that
the development of a predictive model taking into consideration
of the interaction of soil-reinforcement and its effect on the
behavior of a reinforced soil wall using FEM is still open and calls
for further research.

Ify L. Nwaogazie , Adekunle O. David and

Oghenefejiri Bovwe (2016)
This work deals with the development of computer software,
RETFLO for the design of cantilever retaining wall for two options,
viz: (i) sloping wall cantilever retaining wall with surcharge; and
(ii) straight wall cantilever retaining wall without any surcharge.
The computer program RETFLO is written using the BASIC
(Beginners All Purpose Scientific Instructional Code) language.
Verification of the code was done using two illustrative worked
examples, one on textbook, and another on consultancy design
report using field data at mini Okoro location, the study area. Both
the textbook and consultancy report on computed design
parameters showed marginal percentage difference in the range
of 0.0-2.0 and 0.0 to 0.11, respectively. The percentage difference
is attributed to round off error due to manual design computations
exemplified in textbook as well as consultancy report. Also, the
illustrative example on consultancy design was simulated using
TEDD computer software of which the outputs were compared
with those of RETFLO. The margin of error is within acceptable
limit. Thus, RETFLO is a veritable tool in the design of cantilever
retaining walls taking into account
time savings and accuracy.

Hamidi, Peyman , Akhlaghi , Tohid and H.B.,

Masoud (2016)
In this paper an effective and accurate method was introduced for
analysis and design of retaining walls in non-homogeneous soils
based on upper bound finite element formulation. This was a new
method for calculating strict active earth pressure in
nonhomogeneous soils and sensitivity of calculated force is
evaluated against backfill surface angle (), soil layers thickness
(Hi ), soil layers unit weight () and friction angle of layers( )
and between soil and wall ().

Ancesca Amy Justin and Dr. Mohd Yunus Bin Ishak

(2016)
In this study, the design of more focused on the design of
cantilever retaining wall The development in computerized design
systems is one of the methods that
exists to meet the needs in the design world. Similarly to retaining
wall design, the study began by collecting detailed information
relating to the types of retaining walls, retaining wall structure
and the needs to be dealt with in developing the computerized
design systems. In the early stages it is important to identify the
types of retaining walls that exist in the construction field
nowadays and also the factors that need to be considered in
designing a retaining wall structure. In addition, the types of
failure will affect the strength of a retaining wall should be
determine for safety reason in the design requirement. After
taking all the aspects, the design of computerized systems will
begin. Generally, there is a variety of systems software of
computer design that widely use in the market nowadays.
However, the existing programs are very expensive, difficult to
understand and are not focus on the design of cantilever walls.In
the other hand, most of the software analysis design still referring
to the British Standard (British BS8110) specifications. Therefore,
these programs developed as tools to design retaining wall,
method that easy to understand, cheap and based on the
standard design accordance to Euro code 2: Design Concrete
Structures. Manual calculation must be done in advance to ensure
the understanding in analysis and the design elements that need
to be considered in selecting retaining wall.. The design of the
computerized program was developed using Microsoft Excel. By
using this method, most computer users already familiar with
Microsoft product which will be easier to understand the program
analysis method and they will value the outcome from the
analysis. The program was developed and every detail or step in
the design steps is according to specifications given in Euro code
2: Design of Concrete Structures.

Pei, Yaoyao and Xia, Yuanyou (2012)

The paper aims at automatic design and cost minimization of
reinforced cantilever retaining walls (RCRW). The design
requirements and geometrical constraints are imposed as design
constraints in the analysis. 9 parameters are
selected to define the structure and 25 constraints are
established. Three heuristic algorithms, including genetic
algorithm (GA), particle swarm optimization (PSO) and simulated
annealing (SA) are presented to solve the
constrained optimization model. The computation programs have
been developed and validated by taking an example design.
Results show that heuristic optimization algorithms can be
effectively applied to cost minimization design of
RCRW. It was found that no single algorithm outperforms other
methods. With respect to effectiveness and efficiency, PSO is
recommended to be used.

Sharma, Chetan and Baradiya, Vijay (2014)

This paper presents the stability check for a cantilever wall which
is obtained using a computer program that calculates various
sections satisfying the stability criteria, according to the height
and properties of earth that the wall is required to support.

Sureban ,Vijayakumar , A. B., Subhash , T. P. ,

Sumant , M.B. , Venkatesh , L. K. , Yallappa (2015)
This paper presented a case study on Static Stability
Analysis of Retaining Wall at Dewarwadi. A semi-gravity wall of
PCC is constructed to retain the silty gravel backfill in Dewarwadi
village near Vaijanath temple. The soil samples at the top and
bottom of the wall at three sections are collected and tested.
Then the static stability analysis of the wall is carried out. It is
found that the average factors of safety with respect to
overturning, sliding and bearing failure are 4.56, 9.62 and 3.1
respectively, which shows wall is safe as required factors of safety
are 2, 2 and 3 respectively. But, these are too higher, which
indicates the oversized wall is constructed. Hence, for safety as
well as the economy the actual wall should have been of the
dimensions; Stem top width=0.2 m, Stem bottom width=1.1 m,
Width of base slab= 2.72 m, Thickness of base slab=0.68 m, Heel
projection=0.62 m and Toe projection =1 m. The % saving in
materials would be 41.5 % compared to the existing wall. Also, for
the proposed wall the factors of safety with respect to
overturning, sliding and bearing failure are 3.684, 6.970 and 5.14.

Gosh, Sima (2010)

This paper presents an analytical solution for total active force on
the retaining wall backfilled by c- soil considering both horizontal
and vertical seismic coefficients. Pseudo-static force based
concept is used for this particular analysis. The effect of tension
cracks is also taken into account. The analysis is done in such a
way that for simultaneous action of weight, cohesion and
surcharge a single critical wedge surface is generated. The results
are presented in tabular form. Variation of different parameters
are studied and the variation of seismic active earth pressure
coefficient which are presented in graphical form.