Volume 6 – Geotechnical Manual, Site Investigation and Engineering ...

Chapter 7 RETAINING WALL
7.5
STABILITY OF RIGID RETAINING WALL
Rigid retaining walls are those that develop their lateral resistance primarily from their own weight
and the weight of soil above the base of the wall, if any. The
goetechnical design analysis for a rigid
retaining
wall shall include all the possible mode
of a rigid retaining wall, namely
a) Sliding/translational failure
b) Rotational failure
c) Foundation bearing capacity failure
d) Deep seated/global stability failure
Figure 7. .14 shows the
schematic sketch of the potential failures of a rigid retaining wall.
(a) Sliding or translational failure
(b) Rotational failure
(c) Bearing Capacity failure
d) Deep-seated Failure
Figure 7.14
Potential Failure of a Rigid Retaining Wall
The stability of free standing rigid retaining wall can be determined by computing factors of safety,
which may be deined in general equation as:
The forces that produce overturning and sliding
also produce
the foundation bearing pressures and,
therefore, (a), (b) and
(c) are interlated for most soils
Figure 7.15 presented a useful guide for the
computation of the stability of a rigid concrete
retaining
wall (after NAVFAC, 1986).
March 2009
7-17