In the design of an embedded earth retaining structure the geometry is adjusted to achieve a prescribed factor of safety against overturning. There are at present a number of methods which can be used to assess the stability of an embedded retaining wall, each of which gives a different value of the factor of safety for a stable wall configuration. To achieve a measure of consistency in the design of this type of structure information is therefore needed on the interrelations between the methods. This report gives results from a parametric study which used four different methods to assess the stability of an embedded cantilever wall retaining 5 metres of ground. The effect on the factors of safety of variations in individual input parameters are illustrated and the findings compared with the values of factor of safety currently recommended for design.
Abstract