Retaining wall reinforcement

[BH6]

Hello everyone,
I have a retaining wall 50 feet in length and around 7' high that will be going up against an existing retaining wall. It will be now holding back water that can be on either side. I will not be using the existing wall to take any of the loads but it will not be removed. Therefore, the retaining wall will be L shaped. It is also in seismic zone D so I am checking ACI 350.3 for rectangular tank design even though this will work more like a retaining wall until you get to the corners. Also, I have shown the typical corner detail--any thoughts on what else I need to consider for either layout? I am putting it into a program with the bottom of the wall fixed and comparing the sides fixed with the sides pinned to see what loads might develop there. Any thoughts on what else I need to be aware of would be appreciated. Thanks for any help.

 

[BH6]

The Nilsson article is available here:

Thanks I'll look at that.

The diagonal bar helps to control cracking so would be good in this situation if you can fit it. Can you haunch the inside corner and push the diagonal bar into the haunch so it doesn't interfere with the waterstop?

I think that would work. So it would look like this?

Any rule of thumbs on the haunch dimensions? Also, I did see something where the haunch was squared off. Are there any advantages to that?

 

[bones206]

I thought the swelling and non-swelling deteriorated over time. I also read that they can weaken the concrete around them.

It may be that some types deteriorate over time under certain exposure conditions. There are many products out there designed for almost every application. You just have to hunt around and called vendors. They will each put a positive spin on their products and a negative spin on their competitors', so you can get a pretty good sense of where the truth lies with each type of product.

With the swelling type, I've seen slabs completely blow out along the edge when the bentonite swelled. But in that case, it wasn't detailed correctly. You would be installing it within a joint restrained by rebar. The swelling action combined with the clamping action of the rebar makes for a good seal and should preclude a blowout. It would probably work well in your application.