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Sunday, April 24, 2016

The Fundamentals Of Retaining Wall

By Helen Russell


Retailing walls are built for the purpose of restraining soil to unnatural slope. They retain soil lying between two regions of uneven elevations. The areas they are constructed vary. They are often constructed in places where engineering and shaping needs to be done severely for functions like hillside farming and roadway overpass. Other area where a retaining wall may be constructed is a place where there is an undesirable slope.

There are many types of these walls. Some of the examples are gravity, piling, cantilever, and anchored walls. They are meant to support a wedge of soil. The design and construction is done in a way as to counteract the tendency of retained material to shift downslope as a result of gravity. Gravity creates lateral earth pressure on the back of the wall. The pressure depends on the angle of friction and cohesive strength of the material retained.

The ability of gravity walls depends on their mass to resist pressure behind. They get made of heavy material including concrete and stone. Batter setback may be incorporated to improve their stability so that they lean back toward the material that is being held back. The dry-stacked variety of gravity walls are made flexible and in areas prone to frosting, the footing is not made rigid.

Gravity walls dominated in most sites during the first half of the twentieth century. Big stones and concrete were used in their construction. During the second half of the century, gravity walls started to be made using composite materials. Gabions, crib walls, and soil-nailed walls were the major construction materials in use. Rocks are used to fill stacked steel wire baskets to construct gabions.

The construction of cantilevered retaining walls is done from internal stems made from mortared masonry, steel-reinforced, and cast-in-place concrete. The front may be buttressed in some situations. For additional strength to resist heavy loads, the front side may comprise of counterfort. Buttresses are made to resemble wing walls and are installed perpendicularly to the trend of the main wall. Compared to gravity walls, cantilevered walls consume less construction material.

Sheet pile retaining walls are placed in tight spaces and soft soils. They are made from a wide variety of materials including wood planks, vinyl, or steel driven into the soil. At least a third of the material is driven into the ground while two thirds remain above the ground. However, depending on the environment, these measurements may be altered.

Bored pile walls are built by assembling a series of bored piles. Excess soil in the construction site must be excavated first. The construction process employs many techniques and processes including soil enhancement operations, reinforcing beams, earth anchors, and shotcrete reinforcement layer. Bored pile walls can be built anywhere where sheet piling walls are feasible but cannot be built as a result of excess vibration and noise the process involves.

Styles of construction have evolved a lot. In the same way, methods of reinforcing the walls are many and diverse. Some common methods of retaining include cellular confinement, soil nailing, soil-strengthening, and gabion meshes.




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