Research on Installation Technologies of Retaining Walls with Ground Anchors

Abstract

With increasing level of urbanization, new buildings are erected in close proximity of existing buildings or quite close to site boundaries. Such practice affects the complexity of retaining wall installation technology. When a retaining wall is installed close to an existing building, a street or a steep slope, the stability of the wall has to be ensured first. There are cases when a retaining wall has to be strengthened by creating a permanent or temporary support, i.e. by installing ground anchors. According to literature analysis, the major problem is that a profile stops without reaching its designed depth (Van Baars). Merifield et al. distinguish three major types of anchors: circular, square and rectangular. They emphasise that anchor surface unevenness does not impact anchor resistance. According to El Nagar, most frequently anchors disintegrate due to excessive tensile strength of the anchor. The increase of this force is related to tensile strength measured in anchor testing. In this paper, three types of retaining walls with ground anchors are considered: pile wall, Berlin Wall, and sheet piling with excavation depth of 6 m. The conditions are selected as follows: when walls are installed in clay soils, sandy soils, sandy soils at high groundwater levels, and when the wall is installed next to the building. Mechanical resistance and stability of construction incline are calculated by means of GEO5 software. A survey was designed basing on the calculation results and the selected evaluation criteria. In the survey geotechnical engineers rated 18 different cases. The relevance of criteria is determined by employing the entropy method after the primary results of the survey are summarised; afterwards a multiple criteria decision analysis carried out using the utility function. The multi-criteria assessment results indicate the most rational type of a retaining wall for the chosen conditions.