Types of Earth Retaining Structures
Retaining structures:
The structure used to retain or support the material/soil is called retaining structure. e,g retaining walls, which may be of RCC, brick or stone masonry or sheet piling etc
Retaining walls:
A retaining wall is a structure designed to sustain the material pressure of earth or other materials as grains, ores, etc
Surcharge:
The material which lie above the horizontal level of the retaining structure is known as surcharge. The angle which this material makes with the retaining wall is called surcharge angle.
Types of Earth Retaining Structures
Retaining walls:
A retaining wall is a structure designed to sustain the material pressure of earth or other materials as grains, ores, etc.
"The Structures that are built to retaining soil, clay, gravel, stones etc through its weight or flexural ability are called earth retaining structures"
There are different types of earth retaining structures such as gravity retaining structures, cantilever retaining structures etc all of them performs the same function using different behavior towards detainment. Earth retaining structures sometimes also called retaining walls plays a vital role in field of Structural engineering, Geo-technical Engineering, Transportation engineering, water resources engineering and many other fields of civil engineering.
Gravity Retaining wall structure:
It is the simplest of all and is made up of:
- Concrete
- Brick Masonry
- Stone Masonry
Gravity wall retains the backfill due to its weight. It is also much thicker in section.
Cantilever Retaining Wall:
It resists pressure due to its bending action. Cantilever wall is usually made up of R.C.C. It is more convenient and economical to use. Rankine's and Coulomb's theories can be used to find active earth pressure on the wall.
Counter Fort Retaining Wall:
It is just like a cantilever wall but is much longer as compared to cantilever wall. If it is to be used for even longer distances, some supports are provided to it at required intervals.
Sheet Pile Wall structure:
In sheet pile wall thin sheets are used which are driven through the soil up to the required depth. It cannot resist very high pressure. Sheet pile walls are light in weight as compared to the other typed of retaining walls and is used where the soil strata is weak, especially when the upper strata is weak. Some supports are provided to it, if it is to be used for high pressure.
