ERT352

FARM STRUCTURES

It doesn’t matter what the subject is; once you’ve learnt how to
study, you can do anything you want.
• Retaining walls are used to retain earth or other material in
a vertical or nearly vertical position at location where an
abrupt change in ground level occurs.
• This caused the retained earth to exert a lateral pressure
on the wall, thereby tending to overturn, side and settle the
retaining wall.
• Failure of retaining wall as shown in figure below.
• There are many types of retaining structures and generally
divided into two main categories namely gravity wall and
cantilever wall.
• The following are some commonly used walls in Malaysia
o Gravity wall
• Depends on its own weight to provide
the necessary stability
• Usually constructed of plain concrete
or stone masonry
• Height of wall < 3 m
o Cantilever wall
• Most common type of retaining structures
• Economical for height up to 8 m
• Consists of a vertical cantilever spanning
from a large rigid base slab
o Counterfort wall
• Used where the overall height of wall is too
large to be constructed economically as
cantilever
• The wall and base are tied together at
intervals by counterfort or bracing walls
• Economical for high of walls above 6 - 7 m
backfill
o Butrress wall
• Similar to counterfort wall but the bracing is
constructed in front of the wall.
• Provides free usable space in front of the
wall
o Gabion wall
• Made of rectangular containers (basket) which
are filled with stone and stacked on one other.
• Can conform to ground movement, dissipate
energy from flowing water and drain freely
o Crib wall
• Constructed by interlocking individual boxes
made from timber or pre-cast concrete
members.
• The boxes filled with crushed stone or other
coarse granular materials.
o Tie back
• A horizontal wire or rod or helical anchor used to
reinforce retaining walls for stability
• Resists forces that would cause the wall lean
o Keystone
• Made up from concrete segmental block units
• Using interlocking systems
• Offers aesthetic appeal, cost efficiency, easy
installation and strength.
• The design of RC retaining
wall can be divided into two
fundamental stages as follow:
o Stability analysis
• Lateral force due to earth
pressure constitutes the main
force acting on the retaining
wall, tending to make it
overturn, slide and settle.
o Element design and detailing
• 3 elements of retaining wall
(eg.: stem, toe slab and heel
slab) are designed as cantilever
slabs to resist the designed
moments and shear forces.
• Design a cantilever wall to retain earth with horizontal
backfill which subjected to surcharge of 10 kN/m2. the top
of the wall is 4.0 m above the ground level and foundation
depth may be taken as 0.9 m below ground level with a safe
bearing capacity 170 kN/m2. Assume the backfill has a unit
weight of 19 kN/m3 and an angle of shearing resistance of
350. The coefficient of friction between soil and concrete is
0.45. Use fck = 30 N/mm2, fyk = 500 kN/m2 and nominal
cover = 45 mm
1 2