Reinforced Earth Retaining Wall Design Using Reinforcement Steel With Gabion Facing
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Date
2006-10
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
This paper presents reinforced earth model retaining wall made of reinforcement steel and
gabion facing. Four model reinforced earth retaining wall were designed and constructed at
selected site in Technology Faculty (North) campus. Rigid walls were provided at the sides
and rear face to simulate the plain strain conditions prevailing in retaining walls. A gabion
was used as facing to keep the backfill soil from flowing. Reinforcement steel was used as
reinforcement with vertical spacing of 40cm and horizontal spacing of 36cm. Sand with
different relative densities was used as backfill and a surcharge for each model wall. The
surcharge was applied over the model wall step by step and deformation of the
reinforcement was measured under different surcharge load until certain group of
reinforcement observed to fully mobilize their frictional resistance. To identify the level of
loading at which frictional resistance was fully mobilized, a graph of applied surcharge
load versus wall face displacement was plotted and carefully observed the level of loading
at which frictional resistance was fully mobilized. This level of loading was taken as
ultimate load that the particular reinforcement steel can carry. Based on the observed
ultimate load, the coefficient of friction between the backfill soil and reinforcement was
determined. It is this coefficient of friction which will be used for the design of actual
retaining wall.
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Keywords
Gabion; Facing