Take a Detailed Look at the Practice of Drystone Retaining Wall Construction And yet, in engineering terms, they are complex. They can deform significantly as their loading changes and their constituent stones weather. This gives them ductility—they deal with changes by adapting to them. In some ways, they behave like conventional concrete retaining walls, but in many ways they are better. They cannot be designed or assessed correctly unless these differences are understood.
Take a Detailed Look at the Practice of Drystone Retaining Wall Construction
Drystone retaining walls make very efficient use of local materials, and sit comfortably in their environment. They make an important contribution to heritage and to the character of the landscape, and are loved by many people who value the skill and ingenuity that has gone into their construction, as well as simply how they look.
And yet, in engineering terms, they are complex. They can deform significantly as their loading changes and their constituent stones weather. This gives them ductility—they deal with changes by adapting to them. In some ways, they behave like conventional concrete retaining walls, but in many ways they are better. They cannot be designed or assessed correctly unless these differences are understood.
Implementing concepts that require no prior knowledge of civil engineering, the authors:
Explain the behavior of earth retaining structures
Provide a theoretical framework for modeling the mechanical stability of a drystone retaining wall
Outline reliable rules for constructing a drystone retaining wall
Include charts to support the preliminary sizing of drystone retaining walls
Examine the relevance of drystone in terms of sustainability
Describe more advanced methods of analysis
Drystone Retaining Walls: Design, Construction and Assessment draws on theoretical work and full-scale practical testing to explain how these structures work, without presuming that the reader has received an engineering education. The book goes on to give enough detail to give the professional engineer confidence in the methods used in design and assessment, and insight into what matters most in the way in which drystone retaining walls are built. It shows how to design new or replacement drystone retaining walls that are efficient, sustainable, attractive, and in keeping with the character of the area where they are built, and demonstrates how to make fair assessments of existing walls.
Table Contents
1 Introduction
1.1 Uses of drystone retaining walls
1.2 Construction styles
1.3 Sustainability
1.3.1 Qualitative consideration of the sustainability of drystone retaining walls
1.3.1.1 Transportation of materials
1.3.1.2 Socioeconomic issues
1.3.1.3 Durability
1.3.1.4 Reusing the materials
1.3.2 How to measure the sustainability of drystone walls
1.3.2.1 Life cycle assessment
1.3.2.2 Comparison of drystone retaining wall with two conventional modern technologies
1.4 Summary
2 An introduction to the behaviour of simple earth retaining structures
2.1 The behaviour of soil
2.2 The fundamental requirements of a gravity retaining wall
2.3 Earth pressure calculations
2.4 Limit equilibrium analysis
2.4.1 Sliding
2.4.2 Bearing and overturning check
2.4.3 Effects of varying the geometry
2.4.4 The effect of loading on the ground surface
2.5 Yield analysis
2.6 Summary
3 Behaviour of drystone retaining structures
3.1 Transmission of forces within a drystone wall
3.2 The effect of loading at the ground surface
3.3 The effect of the rough back face
3.4 Overturning behaviour
3.5 Wall deformations and their implications
3.6 Bulging
3.6.1 Two-dimensional bulging
3.6.2 Three-dimensional bulging
3.7 Tensile strength
3.8 Vertically orientated stones and bending resistance
3.9 Construction styles using rounded stones
3.10 The effects of a tightly constructed face
3.11 Summary
4 Analysis and design
4.1 Ensuring safety
4.2 The distinction between analysis and design
4.3 The distinct element method
4.4 Limit equilibrium analysis
4.4.1 Monolithic wall analysis
4.4.1.1 Wall stability against sliding
4.4.1.2 Wall stability against overturning
4.4.2 Multiblock wall analysis
4.5 Yield design analysis
4.6 Design charts
4.6.1 Utilisation of design charts
4.6.2 Graphical comparison between the results of limit equilibrium and yield design
4.7 Summary of analytical methods
5 Construction
5.1 Building in drystone
5.1.2 Material
5.1.2.1 Geological considerations
5.1.2.2 The supply of stone
5.2 Building a drystone retaining wall
5.2.1 The different elements of a drystone wall
5.2.1.1 Arrangement of stone
5.2.1.2 The parts of a wall
5.2.1.3 Categories of stones in the wall
5.2.1.4 The faces of a stone
5.2.2 Organisation of the construction site
5.2.2.1 Preliminary site preparation
5.2.2.2 Foundation preparation and earthmoving
5.2.2.3 Delivery to site and sorting of materials
5.2.2.4 Preparation of the surface of the foundation
5.2.2.5 Dimensional control
5.2.3 Construction rules
5.2.3.1 Determination of the batter
5.2.3.2 General principles of construction
5.2.4 Raising the wall
5.2.4.1 Foundations
5.2.4.2 The wall itself
5.2.4.3 The coping
5.2.4.4 The backfilling
5.2.4.5 End of the work
5.3 Summary
6 Assessment
6.1 The scope and purposes of assessment
6.1.1 Definition of function
6.1.2 Definition of need
6.1.3 Definition of information required
6.2 Methods of assessment – observation and interpretation
6.2.1 The stone itself
6.2.2 Geometry
6.2.3 Details of the construction
6.2.4 Defects
6.3 Summary
Appendix: Design charts – to enable initial sizing
References
Index