Chapter 4: Retaining walls – limit-equilibrium-based approach

Geosynthetics (geotextiles and geogrids) have been used extensively in the construction of retaining walls as a reinforcement material since their development. In most cases, granular materials are used as the backfill. This chapter presents the design considerations and stability analysis of retaining walls with geotextiles and geogrids as the reinforcement in granular backfill, and describes their stepwise general design procedure. Numerical examples illustrate and explain the design steps. Some simple questions are presented to assess understanding of the analysis and design concepts.