Design of cantilever retaining walls for minimum tilting tendency

ABSTRACT The design of cantilever retaining walls is a routine task for the civil or structural engineer, but the design ultimately adopted typically results in highly varying vertical foundation pressure across the base. This variation in foundation pressure promotes differential settlement, thus increasing the tilting tendency of the whole retaining wall over time. This paper demonstrates that there are generally two (alternative) positions for the stem on the base for which there will be no tendency for the wall to tilt either forwards or backwards under the action of given loadings, and develops a direct approach for the determination of these positions with a view to minimising the ultimate tilting tendency of the wall.