Cantilever retaining wall

davefo

Does anyone know how to model the soil support under the base of a retaining wall. see attached file. The soil support can only accept compressive stresses.
Also how can i emulate the horizontal frictional resistance between the base and the soil support

Victor

The most complete way is to use contact with nonlinear static 3D analysis and CCX and model the soil too.

But if the whole surface remains held by static friction and doesn't separate from the soil, you can just use fixed support and look at the shear stress or reaction force to ensure it doesn't exceed static friction force, and normal stress to ensure the joint hasn't separated. Perhaps joined to a mesh of the soil too if the soil's elasticity is important.

davefo

i thought i might need to model the soil but don't know what properties to give it

Victor

I don't know much about soil and can't help there, sorry. It sounds like a more general engineering problem that perhaps you could ask on eng-tips.com