Embedded Retaining Walls - Online

The type and complexity of a retaining wall is typically governed by various factors such as site-specific ground conditions, wall deflection limits, wall type, wall height, wall loading, construction staging and/ or site access conditions.

Participants will gain a fundamental understanding of the fundamental aspects and concepts of the design and construction of the common types of embedded retaining walls such as timber pole, post and panel, sheet pile and secant pile walls. The course will also address the use of a single row of ground anchors to laterally support embedded walls.

The following modules will be covered:

1. Fundamentals of different retaining wall and retention systems (e.g. wall types, scope, performance, geotechnical design parameters and suggested site investigation methods).
2. Fundamental design principles of embedded retaining walls under static and seismic loading conditions.
3. Fundamental design of embedded retaining walls with a single row of ground anchors’
4. Fundamental construction methods for selected embedded cantilevered retaining walls (e.g. as timber pole, post and panel, sheet pile and secant pile walls)
5. Design example: Cantilevered timber pole retaining wall (including the effects of changing design assumptions from flexible to stiff wall behaviour).
6. Design example: Post and panel wall with a single row of ground anchors.

Is this course for you?

• Suitable as a refresher for more experienced geotechnical, civil, and structural design engineers, construction professionals.
• Suitable as an introduction to engineers or constructers in their early career to understand the principles of static & seismic retaining wall design and the important differences between gravity walls and embedded retaining walls.
• This course may also be relevant for construction professionals (project and site engineers, project and construction managers, supervisors, builders or specialist contractors) to understand some of the key risks related to the general design and construction aspects of retaining walls, including ground anchors (only one row of anchors will be covered).
• Participants should be familiar with fundamental geotechnical and structural design principles but no experience in retaining wall design is required.

Learning Outcomes

This course is designed to help you:

• explain the fundamental differences between embedded retaining structures and gravity walls
• explain the difference between ‘active’ and ‘passive’ wall systems
• list selected performance criteria for embedded retaining walls
• identify suitable site investigation and soil testing methods to obtain reliable geotechnical design parameters for the design of embedded retaining walls
• apply the design fundamentals for embedded retaining walls considering aspects like static and seismic earth pressure as well as cantilevered and laterally supported embedded walls (single row of anchors)
• apply fundamentals of ground anchorage design
• identify fundamental construction aspects and main construction risks associated with timber pole, post and panel, sheet pile, contiguous pile and secant pile walls.

Format

This highly practical course is presented ‘live’, either face-to-face or online, which allows a close interaction with the presenter.

The first part will cover the fundamentals of the design (modules 1, 2 and 3) and construction (module 4) of embedded retaining walls. At the end, two real world design examples will be presented to support the learning experience.

Presenter Information

Dr Martin Larisch is an Independent Geotechnical and Civil Engineer (Director of Larisch Consulting Ltd) and a Fellow with Engineering New Zealand. He has been involved in the design, construction and verification of a large number and variety of different ground retention systems for more than 25 years across New Zealand, Australia and Germany.

Prior to starting his own consultancy firm, he held various technical and operational positions for some of the leading geotechnical contracting and consultancy firms in New Zealand, Australia and Europe.

Throughout his professional career (which he started as a carpenter in Germany) he gained in-depth understanding and a holistic perspective of the different life cycle requirements and the risk profile of various retaining walls, deep basement, shafts and temporary excavation systems from feasibility stage to project delivery. He has also been involved in the assessment of defective retention systems and the remediation of such defects.

Martin has published more than 30 technical papers for international journals and conferences, and he was involved in the review and development of various best industry guidelines for deep foundations in New Zealand, Australia and Europe.

He was appointed Adjunct Associate Professor at the University of Queensland (Brisbane) from 2014 until 2021 and facilitated numerous lectures and seminars related to ground engineering.

Martin is currently representing the New Zealand Geotechnical Society (NZGS) in Technical Committee TC212 ‘Deep Foundations’ at the International Society for Soil Mechanics and Geotechnical Engineering (ISSMGE). He has been a member of the expert panel for the development of NZGS/ SESOC Piling Specification and the NZGS ‘Tiered Retaining Wall’ Practice Note.