Retaining Wall Designer — Ebora

🧱 Retaining Wall Designer

Stability of a cantilever, gravity or counterfort retaining wall — Rankine active earth pressure (level or sloping backfill + surcharge), self-weight & backfill resisting moments, then the factor of safety against overturning, sliding (optional toe passive resistance) and bearing (base-pressure distribution, eccentricity, middle-third). With a scaled wall diagram, worked steps and a PDF report.

🧱 Free for Ebora students · run as many trials as you like · Balance … EP

Wall type

Cantilever: thin stem + base slab; resists by the soil weight on the heel.

Geometry (m)

Stem height H_s

Base thickness t_b

Base width B

Toe length L_t

Stem top width

Stem bottom width

Heel length is computed as B − L_t − (stem bottom width). Total retained height H = H_s + t_b. For a gravity wall use a wide trapezoidal stem (large top/bottom widths) and a short or zero heel.

Backfill & loads

γ backfill (kN/m³)

φ backfill (deg)

Backfill slope β (deg)

Surcharge q (kPa)

γ concrete (kN/m³)

Foundation soil

φ base (deg)

Base adhesion c (kPa)

Allowable bearing q_all (kPa)

γ in front (kN/m³)

Toe embedment D_f (m)

include toe passive

Sliding base friction uses tan(φ_base) unless adhesion c governs. Toe passive resistance is optional and conservative to neglect.

📘 Stability results

FS overturning

—

need ≥ 2.0

FS sliding

—

need ≥ 1.5

Bearing

—

q_max vs q_all

Vertical forces & moments about the toe

Worked solution

⚠️ Teaching tool. Assumes a drained backfill (no water behind the wall) and Rankine theory. Confirm Ka, the required FS and bearing checks against your course method and the governing code (NSCP) before any real design.