Reinforced

Concrete
Design
chapter Eight
Walls
8-1 Introduction

8-2 Lateral Forces on Retaining Walls

8-3 Design of Reinforced Concrete Cantilever Retaining Walls

8-4 Design Considerations for Bearing Walls

8-5 Design Considerations for Basement Walls

8-6 Shear Walls

8-1 Introduction
•Walls are generally used to provide lateral support for
an earth fill, embankment, or some other material and
to support vertical loads.

•One primary purpose for these walls is to maintain a

difference in the elevation of the ground surface on
each side of the wall.
•All the walls shown in Figure 8-1 have
applications in either building or bridge
projects.

•They do not necessarily behave in an

identical manner under load, but still serve
the same basic function of providing
lateral support for a mass of earth or other
material that is at a higher elevation
behind the wall than the earth or other
material in front of the wall.
8-2 Lateral Forces on Retaining
Walls
•The design of a retaining wall must account for all the applied loads.

•The load that presents the greatest problem and is of primary concern is the
lateral earth pressure induced by the retained soil.

•The magnitude and direction of the pressures as well as the pressure

distribution exerted by a soil backfill upon a wall are affected by many
variables.

•An important consideration is that water must be prevented from

accumulating in the backfill material.
Because of the involved nature of a rigorous analysis of an earth backfill and the variability of the
material and conditions, assumptions and approximations are made with respect to the nature of
lateral pressures on a retaining structure.

Experience has indicated that walls designed on the basis of these assumptions and those of the
following discussion are safe and relatively economical.
Level Backfill
If we consider a level backfill the assumed pressure
diagram is shown in Figure 8-3.

The unit pressure intensity Py in any plane a distance y

down from the top is

the total wall height hw and the area on which this pressure
acts:
where Ka, the coefficient of active earth pressure, has
been established by both Rankine and Coulomb to be

Ka usually varies from 0.27 to 0.40. The term Ka we) is

generally called an equivalent fluid weight.
Sloping Backfill
Level Backfill with Surcharge
•Loads are often imposed on the backfill surface
behind a retaining wall.

•These loads are generally termed a surcharge and

theoretically may be transformed into an equivalent
height of earth.

•A uniform surcharge over the adjacent area adds

the same effect as an additional (equivalent) height
of earth.
This equivalent height of earth hsu may be obtained
by

In effect, this adds a rectangle of pressure behind

the wall with a total lateral surcharge force assumed
acting at its midheight, as shown in Figure 8-5.
Problems
Case (a)
Case (b)
Case (c)
Case (d)
8-3 Design of Reinforced Concrete
Cantilever Retaining Walls
A retaining wall must be stable as a whole, and it must
have sufficient strength to resist the forces acting on it.
Four possible modes of failure will be considered.
Overturning about the toe, point O, as shown in Figure 8-6,
could occur due to lateral loads.
The factor of safety should never be less than 1.5 and
should preferably be 2.0 or more.
Actual soil pressures should not be allowed to exceed
specified allowable pressures, which depend on the
characteristics of the underlying soil
•A general design procedure for specific, known conditions may be summarized as follows:
1. Establish the general shape of the wall based on the desired height and function.
2. Establish the site soil conditions, loads, and other design parameters. This includes the determination
of allowable soil pressure, earth-fill properties for active and passive pressure calculations, amount of
surcharge, and the desired factors of safety.
3. Establish the tentative proportions of the wall.
4. Analyze the stability of the wall. Check factors of safety against overturning and sliding and compare
actual soil pressure with allowable soil pressure.
5. Assuming that all previous steps are satisfactory, design the component parts of the cantilever
retaining wall, stem, toe, and heel as cantilever beams.
Using a procedure similar to that used for one-way slabs, the analysis and
design of cantilever retaining walls is based on a 12-in. (1-ft)-wide strip
measured along the length of wall.

The tentative proportions of a cantilever retaining wall may be obtained

from the following rules of thumb (see Figure 8-6):
Problems
8-4 Design Considerations for
Bearing Walls
Bearing walls (Figure 8-1g) were briefly described as those walls that carry
vertical load in addition to their own weight.

The design axial load strength or capacity of such a wall will be

The effective length factor k shall be
The following requirements applicable to bearing walls are prescribed, among others, by the ACI
Code, Chapter 14:
Problems
 8-5 Design Considerations for
Basement Walls
A basement wall is a type of retaining wall in which there is
lateral support assumed to be provided at bottom and top by
the basement floor slab and first-floor construction,
respectively.
The wall would be designed as a simply supported member with
a loading diagram and moment diagram as shown in Figure 8-
24.
If the wall is part of a bearing wall, the vertical load will relieve
some of the tension in the vertical reinforcement.
When a part of the basement wall is above ground, the lateral
bending moment may be small and may be computed as shown
in Figure 8-25.
8-6 Shear Walls
•Concrete or masonry walls fixed at their base are used to resist
lateral wind and seismic loads in building structures parallel to the
plane of the shear wall, in addition to supporting gravity loads.

•Shear walls are very efficient lateral load resisting elements that
resist lateral loads by acting as a vertical cantilever.
•Single shear walls could be laid out between column lines as shown in
Figure 8-27.

•The column at both ends of the wall will serve as the boundary
members for the shear wall and the vertical reinforcement in the
columns will serve as the vertical end reinforcement in the shear wall.

•For shear walls, the stiffness, K, consists of a flexural stiffness

component and a shear stiffness component, and is calculated as
The following practical considerations should be taken into account when
laying out shear walls in concrete buildings:
• Locate shear walls to minimize the effect on architectural features in the building
such as doors and windows.
• Utilize stair and elevator shaft walls as shear walls. Shear walls can also be
located on the outer perimeter of a building, but this may reduce the number of
available windows in a building and therefore lead to a reduction in natural light
and exterior views.
• Locate shear walls in each orthogonal direction as symmetrically as possible to
minimize twisting or torsional deformations of the building from lateral loads. If a
symmetrical arrangement is not feasible because of architectural or other
constraints, the building should be analyzed for the resulting enplane twisting
forces, and these would lead to additional lateral forces in the shear walls.
• Shear walls or other forms of lateral force resisting systems are required in both
orthogonal directions of the building.
Shear Wall Design Considerations
(ACI 11.9)
The following load effects should be considered in the design of shear walls:
• The varying horizontal shear force that is maximum at the base of the wall.
• The bending moment that is maximum at the base of the wall. This produces compression at the end zone
at one end of the wall and tension at the end zone at the opposite end. The location of the tension and
compression forces will change depending on the direction of the lateral load.
• The gravity or vertical loads (i.e., roof and floor dead and live loads) that cause compression on the wall.
Reinforcement in Shear Walls
The reinforcement in shear walls consists of
1) distributed horizontal reinforcement used to resist shear forces in the
wall,
2) distributed vertical reinforcement used to resist gravity loads and to
control shrinkage and cracking, and
3) concentrated vertical end reinforcement used to resist the bending
moment due to lateral loads.
The typical shear wall reinforcement is shown in
the wall elevation and section in Figure 8-28, and
the typical reinforcement details at the corners
and at the ends of shear walls are shown in
Figure 8-29.
Minimum Reinforcement in Shear
Walls
The minimum ratio of distributed transverse or horizontal reinforcement, ρt in the wall to the gross cross-
sectional area of the wall perpendicular to the reinforcement is given in ACI 11.9.9.2:

The minimum ratio of distributed vertical or longitudinal reinforcement, ρl in the wall to the gross cross-
sectional area of the wall perpendicular to the reinforcement is given in ACI 11.9.9.4:
Strength of Shear Walls
Problems
(HEF = horizontal each face of wall.)
(VEF = vertical each face of wall.)