THE COMBINED EFFECTS OF SOIL, WATER AND SURCHARGE LOADS ON THE STRUCTURAL BEHAVIOURS OF CANTILEVER RETAINING WALL
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Date
2013
Authors
Adedokun S.I
Oluremi J.R.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Faculty of Engineering and Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria
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. This Study modeled the combined
effects of soil, Surcharge loads and Hydrostatic pressure on the structural behaviours of cantilever
retaining wall under varying geometric conditions. The limit state requirements for overturning, sliding
and bearing pressure were studied under different geometric properties. The use of computer
programming (Java) was employed for quick analyses of the conditions. This research therefore
minimized the stress associated with the iterative process of design and analyses of these structures. The
deductions gave range of satisfactory dimensions with respect to the height of the wall for the preliminary
dimensioning state of design. This study also answered the remained unanswered question of the effects
of an increasing load being supported by retaining wall. The results revealed that Cantilever retaining
wall will perform satisfactorily based on the factors of safety of 1.5 and 2.0 as against sliding and
overturning respectively if soil is ignored in front of the wall with following values of Base width: For
wall supporting full submerged soil, the Base width, B (1.25 0.005q) ; wall supporting submerge soil
up to 0.6 of its Height, Base width, B (0.881 0.00805q) and for wall with submerge soil up to 0.2 of
wall height, Base width, B (0.7093 0.0091) . Results also showed that safety factors against sliding
and overturning increase at a decreasing rate with constant decrease in water level. This gives an
indication that water level greatly affects the stability of the retaining wall, that is, the higher the water
level the greater the sliding and overturning effects. Results also revealed that sliding safety factor
increases constantly with Base width while factor of safety against overturning increases at an increasing
rate. This also shows the severity of sliding as against overturning. Both safety factors also increase at a
decreasing rate with Wall height giving an indication that the stability of cantilever retaining wall
increases with its Height under the same load. For an increasing surcharge values, sliding safety factor
decreases constantly while overturning decreases at a decreasing rate. This also explains why overturning
is less critical as compared to sliding effect
Description
Scholarly article
Keywords
Retaining Wall , Hydrostatic Force , Stability , Sliding , Overturning , Research Subject Categories::TECHNOLOGY
Citation
Adedokun, S. I. and Oluremi, J. R. (2013). “The Combined Effects of Soil, Water and Surcharge Loads on the Structural Behaviours of Cantilever Retaining Wall”, LAUTECH Journal of Engineering and Technology, Vol. 7 (2):60 - 69