Concrete Retaining Wall

[efarri1]

I'm designing a concrete retaining wall that separate two loading areas of different elevations. Large extractor machines are going to be my worst case of travel on this. There's concrete and crushed limestone on both side of the retaining wall at different elevations, one side is 4' lower than the other, and i can calculate those loads easily. My questions are how to convert this tire pressure load into a horizontal pressure or point load and also how to calculate the earthen pressure distribution triangle. TIA.

 

[msquared48]

If you have a retained Geotech on the project, you should enlist his expertise.

Mike McCann
MMC Engineering

 

[TDIengineer]

Use retain pro!... just kidding.

As Mike said, without geotech it would be difficult to know your active earth pressure. I typical seeing active earth pressures of 30-35 psf. I assume your wall has drainage and not subject to hydrostatic loads?

For unrestrained (cantilevered) walls, the normal recommendation for walls with surcharge pressures located within a distance equal to the height of the wall should be designed for an additional uniform lateral pressure equal 1/3 of the anticipated surcharge load. But again this depends on your soil type and thus geotech would help.

Chapter 18 of the California Building Code does provide allowable and lateral bearing pressures (conservative albeit) based on soil type.