I'm not an engineer but I took my fair share of engineering and physics classes in high school and college. Now I just binge TH-cam videos and make stuff. Your video was probably recommended because I've watched a ton of Practical Engineering's videos. Your simple explanation helped me understand why the retaining wall behind my house failed more clearly than any other resource I've looked at and I'll be able to make more informed choices when we replace it. Thanks!
Thank you so much Track (favorite comment so far, and yes I read them all😅). At some point there will be a part 2 to this video with more practical explanations about installation and drainage (possibly a bit more math/physics as well). You wouldn't believe how many failed walls I see around that (possibly) could have been avoided. I would say proper drainage and compacted good-quality backfill would have avoided more than 75% of the failures. (disclaimer these are gut feeling guesses, not based on adequate studies)
Lol the Google gods also brough me for the same reason but I do want to help my mate build his garage and that's going to require a decent retaining wallthanks for the info.
As a geotechnical engineer who designs retaining walls, I found this video to be both well explained and accurate. May even share with the folks at the office...
As a small business owner who has installed retaining walls and been reluctant to do it halfway, this video is both reassuring and very educational. I love content like this that is to the point and has the science provided to back it up. Thank you for the great video, please keep them coming!
As a civil engineering undergrad , your videos really helped a lot in visualising what I’m learning in classes , thanks a lot 😁 Keep up the good work 👍🏼👍🏼
I would appreciate it if you continue the geotechnical series videos. There are many interesting topics to be presented like shallow/deep foundations, slope stability or even other retaining structures and how they work. Keep up the good job!!!
If you enjoyed the video, consider writing a comment (positive or negative) 😊it doesn't cost anything, but it means the world to us🙏 You can also check out the other videos in this series below. Geotechnical Series Videos: 1. Understanding why soils fail ( th-cam.com/video/5iROUI49Cjw/w-d-xo.html ) 2. Understanding the Soil Mechanics of Retaining Walls ( th-cam.com/video/YtQ9ubNbytE/w-d-xo.html ) 3. Geotechnical Analysis of Foundations ( th-cam.com/video/KgKW10iA_4w/w-d-xo.html ) 4. The Leading Cause of Foundation Failures ( th-cam.com/video/qR5PrbDBCLw/w-d-xo.html )
I'm a civil engineer, but have primarily been working in aviation. This is a great refresher and a much more intuitive way of visualizing things than many of the ways I was taught, well done!
As a contractor here in pa, 4 things I find that contribute to retaining wall failures, drainage, frost jacking, poor backfill stock, wall material …chiefly using soils that are poor in draining, lack of aggregate to aid in drainage, and clay soils that could be useful if utilized properly…frost typically enters a design from its face and from the top, both have forcing action, and once that is set it cannot be removed, the wall usually suffers from displacement(s), rotation, or detachment…..wall design or selection of materials for the wall itself…
Making such animated and upon it making our concept so clearly is very worth watching. Thanks you so much. The concepts are very basics. I like it so much.
You are correct Rai, there is so much more. We didn't talk much about cohesive soils and the undrained condition. Most likely there will be a follow up video to this but possibly after we go over foundations and slopes first.
Thank you very much for your excellent work. You make it easy to approach topics. You make problems visual and much more intuitive. In this case, you address an important subject for the general learning and mastery of civil engineering. I appreciate your work, as professional with 30 years of civil engineering on my backs, specialized in hydraulics, and working in civil works management in general, in Municipal Public Administration. I come to here because I appreciate the continuous study (throughout my life) of all kinds of topics globally related to my profession, such as calculus, materials, physics, chemistry and mathematics, about all specialties, including programming. And here I am, reflecting on soil mechanics, recording Prof. Manuel de Matos Fernandes, in the 80's of last century, at my Alma Mater, FEUP, Porto, Portugal.
Thank you. I could have used this when I was in residential construction to explain to the owners the need for engineering in designing retaining walls.
Would love to see a drainage follow up. I’m a career carpenter and am fascinated how soils tests barely existed when I started and are now first order of pre-construction. For very good reasons.
Great video! Would love to see more educational videos on the use of geosintherics, calculations, examples and casestudies of what they allow us to do now as opposed to what we had/used before.
Very well presented. I’m a geotechnical engineer in Florida. I don’t see retaining wall failures often here. One that sticks out in my memory is a set of walls in a neighborhood that had trouble due to drainage problems. The poor drainage caused seepage and piping of the soils below the wall foundations. The loss of support to the foundations led to partial collapse of at least one of the walls. I don’t know too many details because it wasn’t one of my projects. It was in a neighborhood next to one of my projects, and I heard about it from the city engineer.
very nice animated simulation and result. @7:45, having all four cases showing at the same time is beautiful. more retaining walls, or any other kind of failure please. your videos easily demonstrates the concepts very effectively.
I love your videos, the way how you intuitively explain problems and adding animations, simulations and experiments. Now I can understrand the pure theory that they are trying to teach us in university. Go on :)
Thank you for visualizing this complex Geotechnical concepts. Stability of soil is arguably the greatest challenge. In addition, one can intuitively summarise the four scenarios as follows: Case 1: compaction increases the shear strength of particles as they're pushed hard against another. For instance, if you press your knucles against each other and try sliding your fists, if you press hard as you do so there is increased resistance. Hence a relatively higher factor of safety (FS) is expected. Case 2: in addition to the already compacted soil, additional strength is added by the reinforcement. Therefore it makes sense that FS2 > FS1 Case 3: The key component here, is the presence of pore water pressure (pwp), simply put the presence of water decreases the shear strength of soil. This is because pwp refers to water within the soil voids which pushes against the grains, hence alluding to the fist-knucle anology, we can see why that is the case. In comparison to the two cases, we expect FS2>FS1>FS3. Case 4: Loose soil generally has higher shear strength than wet soil but lower than compacted soil, thus, we can deduce: FS2 >FS1 >FS3 >FS4 Thank you for these informative series, would absolutely love to see more visualizations, and other concepts such as 2D seepage.
Amazing summary, thank you so much! In hindsight, something like this should have been included at the end of the video to explain the 4 cases. Very well summarized!
This is very helpful! I actually have issues with a retaining wall which is holding my whole garden! This is so helpful to understanding things better as I try to get it fixed! Thanks!
For my work I come in contact with soil injection. This is new to me. As I live in The Netherlands, your videos help me to understand about the different soils and how they react. So these videos are very helpful for me. Thank you an keep up the good work 👍
I'm a concrete superintendent and we always compact the soil before laying any concrete slab and the same should apply to elevated soil, specially if behind a retaining wall , I'd build that wall thick like a Cantilever on the bottom to avoid tipping over and water drainage system like mentioned in the video
Very well done! Thank you! Simple, educational and straight to the point. I’m studying for my CEG in California and am very excited to have found your videos. Please please post more! Suggestions- geotechnical sampling equipment, extensometers, inclinometers, e-logs, understanding lab testing, anything environmental. Thanks again!! Well done.
Love these videos and the EXCELLENT graphics! I'm a multi-family developer and need to crash course my way to soil, civil and structural engineering...would you please do a video on the most favorable to least favourable soils for low, mid and high rise residential construction??? And another very useful video would be "how to read a geotech report on a development site?!"...I think you would get a MILLION views on that!!! thank you!
Thanks for the video. This is good for a designer like myself, who must make some decisions on approach, or preliminary assumptions, while working with structural engineers for the final design.
Great topic! Thanks All your video topics are great and very well illustrated; it would be nice to have the same videos with some more additional math development on the last part of each topic ( or a part 2). this would fulfill a lot of your followers… for those not interested in the more math section, they could drop at this beginning of this section without loosing a beat… 😄 👌
Thanks for the feedback Richard. This is exactly what we want to hear. Based on the comments so far, a part 2 of this video will happen with a bit more math in it 🙏
would love to hear more about other types of retaining walls and their design considerations in different climates, especially your comments on how climate change has impacted the design theories.
I’m considering to do some alterations in my garden which involve shifting a retaining wall back by a meter or so, and to also place it against my single brick layer garage wall, but have no knowledge of what makes a retaining wall to be strong, so this video is a useful starter. I’ll dig out your first video as you suggest, and have a browse around your channel to increase my knowledge of this topic. Thanks for the video! P.S. I’m not sure if my plan is even a good idea as I don’t want my garage wall to collapse(!), so will also seek professional help if I decide to proceed
This is an interesting video. But the practice often differs a lot from these theories because there are also roots of trees which affect the stability of the whole system.
Practice can differ all it wants, it needs to be engineered to a certain standard though, and he is giving the most common example’s of retaining wall use which is usually back fill and non native soil. Not a hillside full of trees that already has a root system keeping much of stable.
Please make a more detailed video on drainage systems for retaining walls. This information is very helpful in landscape construction projects im taking part in on a generally steep clay/silt rainforest climate area.
Thankyou. I discovered your videos today and love them. The use of animations to communicate ideas is incredible. Would have made studying engineering a lot easier in understanding the concepts
I'd like to see a more in-depth presentation of Mohr's Circle. I'd also like to see an example design calculation. Parker's Reinforced Concrete Design is an excellent guide in this regard. As mentioned in other comments, expanding on each general example with design and load specifics would be wonderful to some of us.
In my clay based soil areas. The Roads Dept is using stone filled gabions more. The stacked cages can be tied into the bank. The rock is permeable to rainfall. And is sourced locally. Its generally fast to install once old is removed and the base is considered wide enough. Crane truck to place galvanised steel cages. Dumper with rock. No concrete. No co2 gasses released. Usually fully finished under a week.
Great Explaination regarding technical issues of retaining wall. One thing I want to add that it would be good if the types of retaining walls against different factors were also breifly explained. Keep it up.
Very interesting and thought-provoking video. A question that's been intriguing me is whether sheet piling, when used as retaining walls, needs to be given a greater safety factor because of the impossibility of draining behind the wall. And whether, if used in fairly impervious clay soils, one ends up creating a pond, so reducing further the bearing capacity of the soils retained behind the sheet piling wall. If these surmises are correct, they would greatly reduce the usefulness of this method for stabilising a downslope on which dwellings are to be, or have already been built.
You can thank the Father of Soil Mechanics, Karl Terzaghi, and modern-day Geotechnical Engineers for saving millions of lives from soil-related failures. We are the unsung heroes of the 21st century. We are a dying breed and work on the most complex structures on any type of soil. You can name it all, from 1000 feet long dams, to 10 mile tunnels, to 100 feet basements, to foundations for 300 feet skyscrapers, to large fiber optic cable pipes on the seabed underwater connecting the internet across the Atlantic Ocean.
Most of the small town that I live in is on the Ohio River and is a sand plateau. My property has what was the end of a dragline set up for mining sand. I've lived here for about 25 years. The whole time I've tried to figure out how to solve br bracing for about a 20 degree off vertical thirty-foot drop that is within 10 feet of the neighboring property at the top. So, I'm very interested in your lecture on retaining walls. Thank you very much! This is in a residential neighborhood of mostly single-family homes.
I really liked this video and would like to hear more, especially regarding soil movement and foundations in sub-arctic regions. For some reason I love listening to enginerds and sometimes even understand a bit of it.
7:25 Case 2 have longest friction surface, that`s why it have the largest safety factor. Longest friction surface provided by geogrids. Engeniging hub, geo-mechanical tasks are very hard and for my opinion are the most interesting for engeneers. Thank you!
So, this is also why basement walls can fail? I would have thought that with all the terracing farmers have done for millennia, this would have been a finished skill. (YT recommended this to me, I'm a retired librarian. I was glad to watch.)
I'm working on a problem installation on the coast, where inside of a large rectangular concrete box is spent nuke fuel 53 feet from the edge of a bluff overlooking the bay and directly across from the bar of the bay. The top of the concrete box is 44 feet above sea level and the box is somewhere around 14 feet high, buried up to its lid that projects about a foot above ground. The soil is nothing more than sand and that sand bank used to extend further out into the bay, 1400 feet more, but has been eroded away at a rate of 30 feet a year until a large amount of large stones, (rip rap or revetment), was placed against the bluff. My complaint is this, with no pilings under that box or any other form of support, the full weight of the box, somewhere around 600 tons is resting on nothing but sand, and the sand under the box is bearing an immense amount of weight, so what's going to happen when a storm comes into the bay with large waves and starts breaking on the bluff. It'll denude that bluff face in no time leaving exposed sand and once those waves start to hit the bearing sands, they will liquify in a heartbeat, bringing down the soils above them right up to the face of the box which will allow the box to tip over, and if it does that, then we have a nuke disaster on our hands. I hope I was clear in my explanation, and if I was, does my reasoning make sense?
Pardon me sir, I have only practical knowledge to offer in on kind of retaining wall. Where I grew up building low treated timber retaining walls where every 1200mm you place an upright 200 X 75 as deep in the ground as the height of the wall. The bottom wouldn't move, always move from the top. My theory was expansion, soil shrinks and settles, applying enormous pressure. Then in the dry it settles again, the after a prolonged dry spell and more settling, it's repeated. My walls never failed because I would always backfill with well drained non expansive material so thought. Just thought soil expansion played a part. I worked on earth construction, rammed earth buildings, the engineer wanted steel reinforcement to one particular structure. A French Architect who was very familiar with this construction would of been horried. He said soil moves in the walls, Reo doesn't. I've seen these walls bend 50mm pipe when being demolished. We jackhammered to expose the pipes to lay the walls over. I left an area of only a third of the circumference attached at the top, less than a palm size. As the wall went the pipe went also , not the way. Walls were 1.8m and pipes at 0.9 approximately. The were stabilised at 4 percent cement
In summary: a retaining wall is necessary to prevent earth from sliding to a lower elevation. Many factors influence the potential movement of earth. To prevent earth material from sliding, a sufficient opposing force must be applied against the perimeter being held in place. Not only must an opposing force be applied, other safety measures must be taken into account to prevent the weakening, degrading and collapse of the wall. Many methods are used to minimize sliding. Most notably compaction, drainage and sloping.
I'm not an engineer but I took my fair share of engineering and physics classes in high school and college. Now I just binge TH-cam videos and make stuff. Your video was probably recommended because I've watched a ton of Practical Engineering's videos. Your simple explanation helped me understand why the retaining wall behind my house failed more clearly than any other resource I've looked at and I'll be able to make more informed choices when we replace it. Thanks!
Thank you so much Track (favorite comment so far, and yes I read them all😅). At some point there will be a part 2 to this video with more practical explanations about installation and drainage (possibly a bit more math/physics as well). You wouldn't believe how many failed walls I see around that (possibly) could have been avoided. I would say proper drainage and compacted good-quality backfill would have avoided more than 75% of the failures. (disclaimer these are gut feeling guesses, not based on adequate studies)
💙🇹🇷💙 selama leykim 👍 emin ol 🐝
Lol the Google gods also brough me for the same reason but I do want to help my mate build his garage and that's going to require a decent retaining wallthanks for the info.
Would like to see this continued into the design calculations and the assumptions behind each failure mode
They simply forgot to install the dead-man thing!!!
Hello, geotechnical engineer here. Can you please keep making these types of videos. This one was really useful for the younger staff. Thanks.
As a geotechnical engineer who designs retaining walls, I found this video to be both well explained and accurate. May even share with the folks at the office...
I am a civil engineer and I want to applaud the quality of your video. I would call it simple and in good taste...
As a small business owner who has installed retaining walls and been reluctant to do it halfway, this video is both reassuring and very educational. I love content like this that is to the point and has the science provided to back it up. Thank you for the great video, please keep them coming!
Right. TH-cam videos are great when the author gets straight to the point without wasting our time trying to be cute.
As a civil engineering undergrad , your videos really helped a lot in visualising what I’m learning in classes , thanks a lot 😁 Keep up the good work 👍🏼👍🏼
I would appreciate it if you continue the geotechnical series videos. There are many interesting topics to be presented like shallow/deep foundations, slope stability or even other retaining structures and how they work. Keep up the good job!!!
Hi Giorgos, a video on shallow foundations is in the making!
agreed!!
If you enjoyed the video, consider writing a comment (positive or negative) 😊it doesn't cost anything, but it means the world to us🙏 You can also check out the other videos in this series below.
Geotechnical Series Videos:
1. Understanding why soils fail ( th-cam.com/video/5iROUI49Cjw/w-d-xo.html )
2. Understanding the Soil Mechanics of Retaining Walls ( th-cam.com/video/YtQ9ubNbytE/w-d-xo.html )
3. Geotechnical Analysis of Foundations ( th-cam.com/video/KgKW10iA_4w/w-d-xo.html )
4. The Leading Cause of Foundation Failures ( th-cam.com/video/qR5PrbDBCLw/w-d-xo.html )
+ve
@@mayanksingh292 hahha love it!!🤣
Very informative, I enjoyed it. Thanks.
Excellent video, it would be great that you made a follow-up video.
Greetings from California.
Well Done Thank You !
I'm a civil engineer, but have primarily been working in aviation. This is a great refresher and a much more intuitive way of visualizing things than many of the ways I was taught, well done!
Great Geotechnical series so far. Would love to see more
As an architect I can't thank you enough for your content.
So simple and sweet language of yours sir
I'm Indian, in the village living boy and studing diploma course in civil engineering.
Thanks sir
Wow superb. I can't believe this Geotechnical series. Even in my college I feel difficult to understand this concepts.
Thank you guys, comments like this make our efforts worthwhile 🙏
This is incredibly helpful to easily understand the mechanics and concept of geotechnical engineering. I hope there will be more of this! Thank you
Thank you Filip 🙏
As a contractor here in pa, 4 things I find that contribute to retaining wall failures, drainage, frost jacking, poor backfill stock, wall material …chiefly using soils that are poor in draining, lack of aggregate to aid in drainage, and clay soils that could be useful if utilized properly…frost typically enters a design from its face and from the top, both have forcing action, and once that is set it cannot be removed, the wall usually suffers from displacement(s), rotation, or detachment…..wall design or selection of materials for the wall itself…
Making such animated and upon it making our concept so clearly is very worth watching. Thanks you so much. The concepts are very basics. I like it so much.
Thank you so much for your continual support Muhammad, we really appreciate you 🙏
This presentation just touches the surface of a great topic. I want more! numbers even! geek out! 😎
You are correct Rai, there is so much more. We didn't talk much about cohesive soils and the undrained condition. Most likely there will be a follow up video to this but possibly after we go over foundations and slopes first.
Same. I really like the style you cover this material, and would love even more depth.
Thank you very much for your excellent work. You make it easy to approach topics. You make problems visual and much more intuitive. In this case, you address an important subject for the general learning and mastery of civil engineering. I appreciate your work, as professional with 30 years of civil engineering on my backs, specialized in hydraulics, and working in civil works management in general, in Municipal Public Administration. I come to here because I appreciate the continuous study (throughout my life) of all kinds of topics globally related to my profession, such as calculus, materials, physics, chemistry and mathematics, about all specialties, including programming. And here I am, reflecting on soil mechanics, recording Prof. Manuel de Matos Fernandes, in the 80's of last century, at my Alma Mater, FEUP, Porto, Portugal.
Thank you. I could have used this when I was in residential construction to explain to the owners the need for engineering in designing retaining walls.
I spent 50 years in electronic and electrical engineering. These videos are fascinating and full of interesting information. Thanks a lot. Colin UK 🇬🇧
Glad you enjoyed it!
Would love to see a drainage follow up.
I’m a career carpenter and am fascinated how soils tests barely existed when I started and are now first order of pre-construction. For very good reasons.
Great video! Would love to see more educational videos on the use of geosintherics, calculations, examples and casestudies of what they allow us to do now as opposed to what we had/used before.
Great suggestion! Thanks Aleksandrs
Very well presented. I’m a geotechnical engineer in Florida. I don’t see retaining wall failures often here. One that sticks out in my memory is a set of walls in a neighborhood that had trouble due to drainage problems. The poor drainage caused seepage and piping of the soils below the wall foundations. The loss of support to the foundations led to partial collapse of at least one of the walls.
I don’t know too many details because it wasn’t one of my projects. It was in a neighborhood next to one of my projects, and I heard about it from the city engineer.
very nice animated simulation and result.
@7:45, having all four cases showing at the same time is beautiful.
more retaining walls, or any other kind of failure please.
your videos easily demonstrates the concepts very effectively.
A perfectly understandable explanation for non-engineering types. Like me!
I love your videos, the way how you intuitively explain problems and adding animations, simulations and experiments. Now I can understrand the pure theory that they are trying to teach us in university. Go on :)
Glad you think so zoccat, welcome aboard!
Thank you for visualizing this complex Geotechnical concepts. Stability of soil is arguably the greatest challenge.
In addition, one can intuitively summarise the four scenarios as follows:
Case 1: compaction increases the shear strength of particles as they're pushed hard against another. For instance, if you press your knucles against each other and try sliding your fists, if you press hard as you do so there is increased resistance. Hence a relatively higher factor of safety (FS) is expected.
Case 2: in addition to the already compacted soil, additional strength is added by the reinforcement. Therefore it makes sense that FS2 > FS1
Case 3: The key component here, is the presence of pore water pressure (pwp), simply put the presence of water decreases the shear strength of soil. This is because pwp refers to water within the soil voids which pushes against the grains, hence alluding to the fist-knucle anology, we can see why that is the case. In comparison to the two cases, we expect FS2>FS1>FS3.
Case 4: Loose soil generally has higher shear strength than wet soil but lower than compacted soil, thus, we can deduce: FS2 >FS1 >FS3 >FS4
Thank you for these informative series, would absolutely love to see more visualizations, and other concepts such as 2D seepage.
Amazing summary, thank you so much! In hindsight, something like this should have been included at the end of the video to explain the 4 cases. Very well summarized!
I’ve been thinking about retaining walls lately. This video is a particularly fortuitous discovery.
Can't even think without someone listening these days, eh? 😅
This was very helpful. A dry stone wall has natural drainage, but this video made clear to me the value of compacted backfill. I am very grateful.
Love your content. Please make a video on soil structure interaction.
This is very helpful! I actually have issues with a retaining wall which is holding my whole garden! This is so helpful to understanding things better as I try to get it fixed! Thanks!
Thank you. I would like to see a drainage solutions video.
Thanks for the feedback Susan, based on the comments so far a part 2 video on retaining walls has to happen! Thank you!
@@TheEngineeringHub me too!!!
For my work I come in contact with soil injection. This is new to me. As I live in The Netherlands, your videos help me to understand about the different soils and how they react. So these videos are very helpful for me.
Thank you an keep up the good work 👍
Looking forward to a “Part 2” of this video
I'm a concrete superintendent and we always compact the soil before laying any concrete slab and the same should apply to elevated soil, specially if behind a retaining wall , I'd build that wall thick like a Cantilever on the bottom to avoid tipping over and water drainage system like mentioned in the video
I am a civil engineer and I just love you are videos on construction and the practical implementation of the topics we have studied in the college.❤
Im very glad to hear that Shub. Thank you for your nice words 🙏
@@TheEngineeringHub It is my pleasure to see this.
Building a landscape block patio DIY. This is immensely helpful.
Very well done! Thank you! Simple, educational and straight to the point. I’m studying for my CEG in California and am very excited to have found your videos. Please please post more! Suggestions- geotechnical sampling equipment, extensometers, inclinometers, e-logs, understanding lab testing, anything environmental. Thanks again!! Well done.
Love these videos and the EXCELLENT graphics! I'm a multi-family developer and need to crash course my way to soil, civil and structural engineering...would you please do a video on the most favorable to least favourable soils for low, mid and high rise residential construction??? And another very useful video would be "how to read a geotech report on a development site?!"...I think you would get a MILLION views on that!!! thank you!
Just ran into this channel. Keep up the absolutely amazing work!
Great explanation of the performance capabilities (or failures) of different retaining wall designs! Keep it up! (the videos, not just the wall!)
Thanks for the video. This is good for a designer like myself, who must make some decisions on approach, or preliminary assumptions, while working with structural engineers for the final design.
I wish this was available when I was studying civil engineering!
Man, keep on this subject, got instantly hooked on your chanel
Thank you Jesus, more to come!
Absolutely the best video out there. Good job brother, make a part 2 pls
Incredibly explained the science behind RW.
Kindly go on with 2nd part as the topic is vast ..
Practical info from Knowledgeable Presenter!
Very interesting. We have some failing retaining wall around where I live.
These videos are great, thank you very much for the content! Part 2 please!
very good presentation, and the results of the FEM simulations to illustrate the examples were AMAZING! Congratulations!
Thanks, Rodrigo. We appreciate your support 🙏 it means so much to us!
Thanks Sir for this nice presentation. Would love to view more of your contents.
More to come!
Good job guys! Dynamic visualisation helps so much, in contrast with the books where it is static. Thank you
Please keep making more videos, the more info the better.
Great topic! Thanks
All your video topics are great and very well illustrated; it would be nice to have the same videos with some more additional math development on the last part of each topic ( or a part 2). this would fulfill a lot of your followers… for those not interested in the more math section, they could drop at this beginning of this section without loosing a beat… 😄 👌
Thanks for the feedback Richard. This is exactly what we want to hear. Based on the comments so far, a part 2 of this video will happen with a bit more math in it 🙏
would love to hear more about other types of retaining walls and their design considerations in different climates, especially your comments on how climate change has impacted the design theories.
Slope Stability!!! That issue makes our mountain side projects freaking twice as expensive sometimes. I need a video to show contractors
Yup it's coming up! But yeah slopes can be a pain (i.e. very expensive to control) if they have poor soils and suffer from instability
Perfect explanation for regular people!
I’m considering to do some alterations in my garden which involve shifting a retaining wall back by a meter or so, and to also place it against my single brick layer garage wall, but have no knowledge of what makes a retaining wall to be strong, so this video is a useful starter. I’ll dig out your first video as you suggest, and have a browse around your channel to increase my knowledge of this topic. Thanks for the video!
P.S. I’m not sure if my plan is even a good idea as I don’t want my garage wall to collapse(!), so will also seek professional help if I decide to proceed
Part 2 would be great, please! 👍
gracias. me encanto tu video, es de lo mejor en youtube
This is an interesting video. But the practice often differs a lot from these theories because there are also roots of trees which affect the stability of the whole system.
Practice can differ all it wants, it needs to be engineered to a certain standard though, and he is giving the most common example’s of retaining wall use which is usually back fill and non native soil. Not a hillside full of trees that already has a root system keeping much of stable.
Yes post a video for each type of failure with calculations.
Please make a more detailed video on drainage systems for retaining walls. This information is very helpful in landscape construction projects im taking part in on a generally steep clay/silt rainforest climate area.
Thankyou. I discovered your videos today and love them. The use of animations to communicate ideas is incredible. Would have made studying engineering a lot easier in understanding the concepts
Thank you Prando 🙏 comments like this give us all the motivation needed to keep going
I do would like a second part of this video .
Thanks first of all .
I'd like to see a more in-depth presentation of Mohr's Circle. I'd also like to see an example design calculation.
Parker's Reinforced Concrete Design is an excellent guide in this regard.
As mentioned in other comments, expanding on each general example with design and load specifics would be wonderful to some of us.
Thanks for the feedback Sequoyah, this series will continue for sure.
Great video on soil mechanics and retaining walls.
In my clay based soil areas. The Roads Dept is using stone filled gabions more. The stacked cages can be tied into the bank. The rock is permeable to rainfall. And is sourced locally. Its generally fast to install once old is removed and the base is considered wide enough. Crane truck to place galvanised steel cages. Dumper with rock. No concrete. No co2 gasses released. Usually fully finished under a week.
I agree with Michael, thanks for making these! Would love more technical aspects (PS. I'm a Geotech myself and love these videos) Keep going!
Great Explaination regarding technical issues of retaining wall. One thing I want to add that it would be good if the types of retaining walls against different factors were also breifly explained. Keep it up.
Very interesting and thought-provoking video. A question that's been intriguing me is whether sheet piling, when used as retaining walls, needs to be given a greater safety factor because of the impossibility of draining behind the wall. And whether, if used in fairly impervious clay soils, one ends up creating a pond, so reducing further the bearing capacity of the soils retained behind the sheet piling wall. If these surmises are correct, they would greatly reduce the usefulness of this method for stabilising a downslope on which dwellings are to be, or have already been built.
just mind blowing! Please keep making videos like these and we'll definitely like part-2 of this video.
There are only two kinds of retaining walls:
1) Retaining walls that have collapsed. And,
2) Retaining walls that will collapse.
You can thank the Father of Soil Mechanics, Karl Terzaghi, and modern-day Geotechnical Engineers for saving millions of lives from soil-related failures. We are the unsung heroes of the 21st century.
We are a dying breed and work on the most complex structures on any type of soil. You can name it all, from 1000 feet long dams, to 10 mile tunnels, to 100 feet basements, to foundations for 300 feet skyscrapers, to large fiber optic cable pipes on the seabed underwater connecting the internet across the Atlantic Ocean.
i´ll wait for the 2nd part. Great video
Most of the small town that I live in is on the Ohio River and is a sand plateau. My property has what was the end of a dragline set up for mining sand. I've lived here for about 25 years. The whole time I've tried to figure out how to solve br bracing for about a 20 degree off vertical thirty-foot drop that is within 10 feet of the neighboring property at the top. So, I'm very interested in your lecture on retaining walls. Thank you very much! This is in a residential neighborhood of mostly single-family homes.
I really liked this video and would like to hear more, especially regarding soil movement and foundations in sub-arctic regions. For some reason I love listening to enginerds and sometimes even understand a bit of it.
This is helping me so much. Thank you from Brazil, incredible editing quality!
Thank you so much Joao for the nice words! We are very glad!
7:25 Case 2 have longest friction surface, that`s why it have the largest safety factor. Longest friction surface provided by geogrids.
Engeniging hub, geo-mechanical tasks are very hard and for my opinion are the most interesting for engeneers. Thank you!
Thanks for the comment Roman!
It's been a really helpful piece of information. It's really helped me understand more on the behaviour and failure of retaining walls
Will definitely like a part 2. Thanks for this one.
Nice video I am not an engineer, so this video was very helpful and comprehensive thanks.
Keen to hear more about retaining walls.
Now I understand more why some centuries old dry stone walls are still standing retaining soil.
So, this is also why basement walls can fail?
I would have thought that with all the terracing farmers have done for millennia, this would have been a finished skill. (YT recommended this to me, I'm a retired librarian. I was glad to watch.)
Please continue to go into more detail I love the analysis
I would appreciate to see a video with considerations taken to decide on the type of reinforcement used in retaining walls.
that's structural not geotech...
Thank you for your amazing explanation
Great videos for visual understanding
I'd definitely like to know the current best practices for drainage depending on different soil types
Yes, vedio on drainage behind a retaining wall on a steep slope with clay soil.
I'd like to see a part 2!
I’d love a part 2, you make amazing videos!
Excelente calidad de informacion. Gracias
I'm working on a problem installation on the coast, where inside of a large rectangular concrete box is spent nuke fuel 53 feet from the edge of a bluff overlooking the bay and directly across from the bar of the bay. The top of the concrete box is 44 feet above sea level and the box is somewhere around 14 feet high, buried up to its lid that projects about a foot above ground.
The soil is nothing more than sand and that sand bank used to extend further out into the bay, 1400 feet more, but has been eroded away at a rate of 30 feet a year until a large amount of large stones, (rip rap or revetment), was placed against the bluff.
My complaint is this, with no pilings under that box or any other form of support, the full weight of the box, somewhere around 600 tons is resting on nothing but sand, and the sand under the box is bearing an immense amount of weight, so what's going to happen when a storm comes into the bay with large waves and starts breaking on the bluff. It'll denude that bluff face in no time leaving exposed sand and once those waves start to hit the bearing sands, they will liquify in a heartbeat, bringing down the soils above them right up to the face of the box which will allow the box to tip over, and if it does that, then we have a nuke disaster on our hands.
I hope I was clear in my explanation, and if I was, does my reasoning make sense?
Pardon me sir, I have only practical knowledge to offer in on kind of retaining wall.
Where I grew up building low treated timber retaining walls where every 1200mm you place an upright 200 X 75 as deep in the ground as the height of the wall.
The bottom wouldn't move, always move from the top. My theory was expansion, soil shrinks and settles, applying enormous pressure. Then in the dry it settles again, the after a prolonged dry spell and more settling, it's repeated.
My walls never failed because I would always backfill with well drained non expansive material so thought.
Just thought soil expansion played a part.
I worked on earth construction, rammed earth buildings, the engineer wanted steel reinforcement to one particular structure. A French Architect who was very familiar with this construction would of been horried. He said soil moves in the walls, Reo doesn't. I've seen these walls bend 50mm pipe when being demolished. We jackhammered to expose the pipes to lay the walls over. I left an area of only a third of the circumference attached at the top, less than a palm size. As the wall went the pipe went also , not the way. Walls were 1.8m and pipes at 0.9 approximately. The were stabilised at 4 percent cement
Great video sir..liked the way of explaination...
more interested in sheet retaining walls. Looking forward to that video.
More to come!
I’d love to see something on Footings for different soil contexts, specifically non-concrete footings.
In summary: a retaining wall is necessary to prevent earth from sliding to a lower elevation. Many factors influence the potential movement of earth.
To prevent earth material from sliding, a sufficient opposing force must be applied against the perimeter being held in place.
Not only must an opposing force be applied, other safety measures must be taken into account to prevent the weakening, degrading and collapse of the wall.
Many methods are used to minimize sliding. Most notably compaction, drainage and sloping.