Sunday, May 1, 2016

Basic Information On Retaining Wall

By Helen Russell


Retailing walls are walls designed to for restraining soil to slopes that are not natural. They help to retain soils between two places of uneven elevations. They are made in different places. They are made in places to allow for severe engineering and shaping to serve other purposes like hillside farming. A retaining wall may also be made in regions with undesirable slopes.

There are many types of these walls. Some of the examples are gravity, piling, cantilever, and anchored walls. They are meant to support a wedge of soil. The design and construction is done in a way as to counteract the tendency of retained material to shift downslope as a result of gravity. Gravity creates lateral earth pressure on the back of the wall. The pressure depends on the angle of friction and cohesive strength of the material retained.

The ability of gravity walls depends on their mass to resist pressure behind. They get made of heavy material including concrete and stone. Batter setback may be incorporated to improve their stability so that they lean back toward the material that is being held back. The dry-stacked variety of gravity walls are made flexible and in areas prone to frosting, the footing is not made rigid.

Gravity walls dominated in most sites during the first half of the twentieth century. Big stones and concrete were used in their construction. During the second half of the century, gravity walls started to be made using composite materials. Gabions, crib walls, and soil-nailed walls were the major construction materials in use. Rocks are used to fill stacked steel wire baskets to construct gabions.

The making of cantilevered retaining walls involves the use of internal stems of steel-reinforced, cast-in-place concrete, and mortared masonry. In some circumstances, buttressing is done to the front side. More strength for supporting heavier loads is achieved through the addition of counterfort. Fronts may also be buttressed. Buttresses resemble wing walls and their installation is done perpendicularly to main walls. It takes less construction material to make cantilevered walls in comparison to gravity walls.

Soft grounds and tight spaces do well with sheet pile retaining walls. The materials used to make these walls are many and diverse and they include steel bars, vinyl, and wood planks. One third of the material protrudes above the ground wile the other two third is driven underground. Theses measurements can be changed as dictated by the situation.

Construction of bored pile walls involves assembling sequences of bored piles. Excess soil on the site of construction is excavated first. Many techniques are employed in the construction process including reinforcing beams, earth anchors, shotcrete reinforcement layer, and soil enhancement operations. Bored pile walls and sheet piling walls can be constructed in the same location. Bored pile walls are preferred if noise and vibration levels are not supposed to be very high.

Styles of construction have evolved a lot. In the same way, methods of reinforcing the walls are many and diverse. Some common methods of retaining include cellular confinement, soil nailing, soil-strengthening, and gabion meshes.




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