MODELLING OF THE STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOURS OF CANTILEVER RETAINING WALL

Abstract

Retaining walls are engineering structures constructed to resist lateral forces imposed by soil movement and water pressure; they are used as protection against the erosive forces of water and as a method of slope stabilization along highways, railroads and construction sites. In this Study, the structural behavior of cantilever retaining wall under varying applied loading conditions and geometric properties was modeled. The limit state requirements for overturning, sliding and bearing pressure were studied under different geometric properties for wall with and without surcharge loads. The use of computer programming (Java) was employed for quick analysis of the conditions. The results showed that this wall satisfied the limit state requirement at these values of Base Width the respective surcharge loads. For wall with zero surcharge, the satisfactory value of Base Width is 0.6H and for 10kN/m², the Base Width equals 0.7H. The satisfactory values of Base Width for walls with surcharge loads of 20kN/m² and 30kN/m² are 0.8H and 0.9H respectively. It is evidence from the results that additional surcharge loads at back of cantilever retaining wall increase its tendency to fail and also that sliding effects are more critical than overturning.