Thursday, June 9, 2011

Nerd Speak

I have been working on a retaining wall design off and on for a few days.  I am starting with the worst-case scenario for the design and then I will adjust the design for shorter wall sections.  My design parameters were tough:  the wall is tall, the backslope is high, the interface angle is ok.

The reason the design is taking so long is because it is hard to achieve the neccessary safety factors.  Not to mention, the wall has batter built into it, so the geometry of it is confusing to me (when things are tilted, I get slower).

Yesterday, I did calculations for the wall probably 6 times.  I finally got the overturning to work, but then I could not get the sliding to work.

I was about to throw in the towel when my dad came in today and said that the backslope can be altered to be practically flat.  Will that work? he asked.  Well, yeah!  That is a completely different wall.

Now I am starting over from scratch.

But this time, the tilt in the geometry is no longer confusing and I have a much better handle on the equations.

YAY!

Sorry that was so nerd-filled.

I love doing hand calculations.  :)  Seriously.

Love, Mrs. Janney

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