Retaining Wall Design Chart

[steveyeung]

I am looking for retaining wall design (e.g bored pile wall) charts which allow me to roughly estimate the reqired I value and embedded depth for some given conditons/parameters (i.e. surcharge, angle of friction, retained height).

Does anybody know whether such a design chart is available or does exist??

 

[GeoPaveTraffic]

There are too many parameters and special conditions for any such chart to be valid. I've never seen one; always used a spreadsheet to do those designs.

 

[steveyeung]

GeoPaveTraffic,

Thanks for your reply.

However, I have to do preliminary design in an exam....I think it is quite difficult to bring a computer....

Do you have any better solution?

 

[civilperson]

Build three theoretical walls: one with 48" dia. drilled shafts at 8' centers, one with 36 " dia. drilled shafts at 9' centers, one with 24" dia. shafts at 8' centers. Use same soil properties, loading and depth and find the safe maximum retained height for each one. This will give you some judgement for a starting point when the problem is specified for surcharge, soil weight, phi angle and lateral sub-grade coefficient. Remember, there is no one right answer for any design parameter problem. A successful design can be improved with iterative changes and trials.

 

[DRC1]

Back in the days when we rode dinosaurs, engineeing was actually performed by paper and pencil with the aid of a calculator. I understand it may still be possible to perform calculations in such a manner.
Go to sliderule eras website and download the US Steel sheetpiling design manual. Use Teng's method, it is much simpler than the stanadard method. Assume you have a continous wall, find your maximum moment, and then pick a pile section and spacing that accomidates that moment.

Good Luck

 

[steveyeung]

DRC1,

What is Teng's method? It sounds useful but I haven't heard of it......

 

[DRC1]

In a cantilevered wall there is an overturning load above the excavation line, a resisting force below the excavation line and a balancing force in the same direction as the overturning load. Rather than compute the load, Teng replaces it with a single force. See the CA DOT Guide at this link page 7 :

http://www.dot.ca.gov/hq/esc/construction/Manuals/TrenchingandShoring/ch8_sheet_piling.pdf