OPTIMUM DESIGN OF RETAINING WALL FOR EARTHRETAINING STRUCTURES OF DIFFERENT HEIGHT

Retaining walls are usually classified as geotechnical structures. Retaining wall can be either earth retaining wall or water retaining wall. For earth retaining wall, it is generally used to provide lateral support for an earth fill, embankment, or some other material and to support vertical loads. One primary purpose for these walls is to maintain a difference in elevation of the ground surface on each side of the wall. The earth whose ground surface is at the higher elevation is commonly called the backfill, and the wall is said to retain this backfill. The main objective to be achieved by this project is to investigate the optimum height of different types of retaining wall. As the problems regarding the slope failure and land sliding is becoming more significant in the Peninsular Malaysia, the study on how to minimize or even to eliminate the risks of these problems are crucial. The optimum height of different types of retaining wall should be detem1ined and the design needs to be optimized to provide the best rectification possible. In order to determine the optimum height of different types of retaining walls such as cantilever wall, counter-fort and buttress wall, macros on Excel spreadsheet programs to be develop. Based on the most critical parameters such as soil properties, surcharge pressure, and etc the optimum height can be obtained and then the design is to be optimized.