PROVISIONS FOR JOINTS CONCRETE WALLS

Cast concrete retaining walls may be constructed with any or all of the following joints:

Construction Joints: These are vertical or horizontal joints that are used between two
successive pours of concrete. Keys are used to increase the shear resistance at the joint. If keys
are not used, the surface of the first pour is cleaned and roughened before the next placement of
concrete. Keys are almost always formed in the base to give the stem added sliding resistance.
The base is formed first, and the stem constructed afterwards.

Contraction Joints: These are vertical joints or grooves formed or cut into the wall that allows
the concrete to shrink without noticeable harm. Contraction joints are usually about 0.25 inches
wide and about 1/2 to 3/4 inch deep, and are provided at intervals of not exceeding 30 feet.

Expansion Joints: Vertical expansion joints are incorporated into the wall to account for
expansion due to temperature changes. These joints may be filled with flexible joint fillers.
Greased steel dowels are often cast horizontally into the wall to tie adjacent sections together.
Expansion joints should be located at intervals up to 90 feet.

MONOLITHIC CONCRETE RETAINING WALL

PROPORTIONS
Proper proportioning of a retaining wall is just as important to its construction as its structural
design. Construction-friendly proportions facilitate proper concrete placement and provide
sufficient room for structural reinforcement.

In addition to basic structural requirements, wall dimensions (generally member thickness) are
also affected by the required minimum reinforcement cover. This can add several inches to the
wall's thickness dimensions, and can vary depending on the severity of exposure, soil type and
reactivity, etc.

In general, the top of the stem of any cast concrete retaining wall should not be less than 12
inches for the proper placement of concrete.

The depth to the bottom of the base slab should be kept at a minimum of two feet. However, it
should always be below the seasonal frost line, and that often is much deeper in northern
climates.

The length of the base slab is usually about 50% to 70% of the total height of the wall (bottom of
base to top of stem).

For cantilever and counterfort walls, the stem thickness at the base is often about 10% of the total
wall height, as is the base slab thickness. Counterfort retaining walls have counterforts spaced at
center-to-center distances of about 30% to 70% of the total wall height.
In some cases, a footing key is included to increase resistance to sliding. The footing key is
generally an extension of the stem and extends below the bottom of the base.

For economical design, the soil pressure resultant should pass line up with the front face of the
stem. Assuming the soil pressure distribution as triangular with maximum pressure at the toe and
zero at the heel, the resultant vertical pressure will pass through the middle third point.

Unnikrishna Pillai and Devdas Menon of IIT Madras have developed an expression for the
minimum width of the heel slab as:

Width of Base = B = 1.5Xh and Xt = B/3.

b) Thickness of Base Slab and Stem:

The thickness of the base slab is assumed to be little more than the bottom thickness of the stem.
The minimum thickness of the stem is considered to be 200mm and base slab to be 300mm for
construction purposes.

The preliminary thickness of base slab is given by:

Tb = 0.08h but not less than 300mm.