Date: 01-27-2016

From: Rabindra Chaulagai

To: Dr. Brad Cross
Proposal: Stress Variation at Different Depth in Retaining Wall

Retaining wall is a structure which holds the soil behind it. It is basically used in the highway
expansion or in the stabilization of soil slope. For example: in the case of highway expansion, we
built the retaining wall of designed height and fill soil in its back portion, if highway level is
raised than the proximity area. Also, if highway has to be expanded by cutting the soil slope then,
retaining walls are built to stabilize the soil from slope failure. Different types of retaining walls
can be built depending upon the requirements. Gravity, semi gravity, cantilever and counterfort
retaining walls are some common examples made up of reinforced cement concrete [2].
However, it can also be built from other materials such as gabions, steel and timber.

Cohesive soil has very low permeability which can hold the water for longer time frame. But,
granular soil such as sand, gravel, and sand with silt have low permeability and are preferred

over cohesive soil as a backfill material for retaining walls. Drainage system at the bottom and
Figure 1: Retaining Wall with surcharge loading
weep holes at certain intervals are kept which prevents in accumulating the hydrostatic pressure
and sustain structure for longer time and prevents from failure. At rest, active and passive earth
pressure, hydrostatic pressure and surcharge loadings are some loading conditions for retaining
wall which can be analyzed.

In this project, retaining wall will be analyzed using student version of ABAQUS software
through finite element method (FEM). Retaining wall as shown in figure 1 will be analyzed and
the stress variation at bottom, mid height and ground surface will be determined. Also, my effort
will be in analyzing the stress computation by varying the ground water table. Therefore,
retaining wall model will be analyzed twice, once with ground water table and once without
ground water table comparing the stress variation at different depth from the ground surface.

1. Das, B. M. (2010). Principles of Geotechnical Engineering . Cengage Learning.

2. Helwany , S. (2007). Applied Soil Mechanics with Abaqus Application. John
Wiley and Sons.

3. Poudel, R. K., & Neupane, R. (2015). A Textbook of Foundation of Engineering.

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