Failure modes of retaining

walls
BY SSEMUJJU ALLAN
FAILURE MODES OF RETAINING
WALLS.
•
Types of failure of the retaining walls include the following;
• Sliding
• Bending
• Tilting
• Shallow shear failure
• Deep shear failure
• Slip Circle Failure
sliding
Sliding refers to the change in the position of the retaining wall
away from the backfill on the
wall.
Occurs when horizontal force equilibrium is not maintained.
Overturning
•
Overturning failure is the rotation of a wall about its toe due to
exceeding of moment caused due
to propelling (overturning) forces to resisting forces.
Failures occur when moment equilibrium is not satisfied
Tilting
Tilting involves rotation about the point at which the brace acts on the wall,
often the top of the
wall as in the cases of basement and bridge abutment walls.
Braced walls usually fail by gross instability, tilting, flexural failure, and/or
failure of bracing
elements
Bending
•
This refers to the movement of a long or thin straight wall into curved,
angular or any other
different form.
Cantilever walls are subject to the same failure mechanisms as gravity
walls, and also to flexural
failure mechanisms. Soil pressures and bending moments in cantilever
walls depend on the
geometry, stiffness, and strength of the wall—soil system
Shallow Shear Failure:
•
This type of failure occurs along a cylindrical passing through the heel of
the retaining wall. The
failure takes place because of the excessive shear stresses along the
cylindrical surface within the
soil mass
Consequently, if the factor of safety
against sliding is greater about 1.5, shallow shear failure is not likely to
occur
Deep shear failure
This type of shear failure occurs along a cylindrical surface, when
there is a weak layer of soil
underneath the wall a depth of about 1.5 times the height of the
wall. The critical failure surface
is determined by trial-and-error procedures.
Slip circle failure
• This type of failure is sometimes encountered with retaining walls in clay
soils, particularly
where there is a heavy surcharge of retained material. It takes the form
of a rotational movement
of the soil and wall along a circular arc. The arc commences behind the
wall and passes under
the base, resulting in a tilting and forward movement of the wall. can be
prevented by driving sheet piles into the ground in front of the toe
signs
• NB: Signs of retaining wall failures include: bulging, cracking, tilting
Causes of retaining wall failures

Overturning failures:
• This could be due to the following reasons
• Inadequate width of the base
• Calculation errors in the stability calculation
• Consideration of the incorrect active pressure coefficient
• Inadequate factor of safety against overturning
causes
• Sliding failures: this occurs when horizontal force equilibrium is not maintained.
Sliding
resistance is provided by the base and shear key provided under the foundation.
➢ Saturation of backfill: Saturation of the soil behind the wall without adequate
drainage
significantly increases pressure on the wall hence causing failure.
causes
• Sloping stability failures: when it is a sloping ground, there are high chances
of soil
erosion hence exposing the foundation base.
➢ Lack of reinforcements: this may be due to errors in the design
calculations, inadequate
reinforcements or incorrect placing of the reinforcements
causes
• Shallow foundations: Depth to the foundation is very important in
sloping ground. In
addition, an increase in depth of the foundation improves the stability
even if it is
constructed on flat ground.
➢ Unexpected loads: For example, construction of a new building or
an extension close to
a retaining wall without considering the increase of load. This
increases compression of
the soil between the wall and the building
• Excessive settlement: if the foundation is placed on high compressible
grounds, lateral
earth pressures on the wall could led to settlement of the foundation
hence cracking and
sometimes overturning. Since the pressure under the foundation is
not uniform due to
overturning, one side will settle more than the other side.
Solutions to the retaining walls failures
•
• Drainage can be improved by use of compacted backfill, quality backfilling
aggregate,
installation of adequate weep holes proper grading of backfill.
• Reduce the retained height of the backfill to reduce the horizontal earth pressure
on the
wall.
• Use tie-backs; if the stem is severely overstressed, an option is to use tie-backs
extending
back beyond the failure plane. Drill holes through the wall and install convectional
tie-
backs
solutions
• • Extend the footing; you can extend the footing and thereby substantially reduce the soil
pressures
• Reinforce the front of the wall; this can be done by placing concrete to thicken the base,
and tapering to a height where the added strength is no longer needed. This can also be
done by driving sheet piles into the ground Infront of the retaining wall to distort the slip
circle.
• Adequate site investigation: Designers should aware of compressible soils, back fill
materials and the water table around the areas where the retaining walls are to be
constructed
CASE STUDY: FAILURE OF A
BASEMENT RETAINING WALL
• A 6.1m high cantilever basement wall of proposed multi-storeyed
structure failed during heavy rains caused by tropical storm “neelam”
on November 3, 2012 at dwarakanagar, Visakhapatnam.
• Causes of failure
• Incorrect backfill properties
• Inadequate weepholes
• Low anticipated lateral earth pressure