2021 Géotechnique Lecture – Performance-Based Design of Propped Retaining Walls

Synopsis

Retaining Wall systems are typically designed using Limit State Design assuming active and passive earth pressures are developed to achieve stability, however the mobilisation of these earth pressures may well require substantial wall displacements. As Geotechnical Design is typically governed by allowable displacements rather than collapse, techniques which can predict wall and soil displacements prior to ultimate collapse can allow more efficient performance-based design to be carried out.

In this lecture the development of a performance-based design methodology for propped and cantilever retaining walls will be developed, utilising centrifuge model testing to investigate the mobilisation of strain and earth pressure within the soil surrounding the wall with displacement of rigid wall sections. The relationships developed from these centrifuge tests can then be superposed to predict the equilibrium deflections of flexible retaining walls both with and without props. The performance of the design method will finally be validated by comparison with field and centrifuge case histories in both sand and clay.