Retaining walls require a deep understanding of behavior, site conditions, and potential failure modes to hold strong through time and terrain. This guide walks you through the key wall types and how RSWall and the Rocscience suite helps engineers analyze failure, meet code requirements, and connect directly to global stability tools like Slide2.

What are the Different Types of Modern Retaining Walls?

Retaining walls are built to resist lateral earth pressures and accommodate elevation changes. Choosing the right type depends on factors like site conditions, design life, wall height, and material availability.

The most common types are listed below, all of which are modellable in RSWall:

MSE wall: Built by layering compacted fill with geosynthetic or steel reinforcement, usually finished with a modular block facing. A go-to choice for taller walls, soft ground, or seismic areas.

Gravity wall: A mass concrete or stone structure that resists pressure through sheer weight. Best for low-height applications where there’s enough space for a wide base.

Cantilever wall: A reinforced concrete wall with a stem and base slab that forms an L or T shape. Common in tight urban sites where wall height is moderate but space behind is limited.

Gabion wall: Wire mesh cages filled with stone, stacked to create mass and permeability. Often used for erosion control, drainage channels, or quick builds in remote locations.

Abutment: A structural retaining wall that supports bridge ends and holds back approach fill. Critical in highway and railway infrastructure where stability under heavy loading is non-negotiable.

Block wall: A type of segmental wall made from dry-stacked concrete units, usually paired with geogrid reinforcement. Popular in residential, commercial, and landscape projects where appearance and ease of construction matter.

Wrap-around wall: Uses geosynthetic reinforcement that loops from the back of the fill to the front, forming a stable wall without separate facing units. Handy for remote or constrained sites where simple construction is key.

For more information on each wall type and how to use the software, read RSWall’s extensive documentation here.

Common Retaining Wall Materials and When to Use Them

Materials play a key role in determining performance, constructability, and long-term durability. Concrete, steel, geosynthetics, and natural stone are all used depending on the wall type.

• Reinforced concrete is standard for cantilever and gravity walls, offering high strength and design flexibility.

• Geogrids and geotextiles are widely used in MSE walls for internal reinforcement, particularly in extensible systems.

• Steel strips provide reinforcement in inextensible MSE systems, especially in permanent infrastructure.

• Gabion walls typically use galvanized steel mesh and locally sourced stone, making them cost-effective in remote or unstable environments.

Material selection must account for corrosion potential, seismic demand, drainage requirements, and compliance with local standards.

How to Build a Retaining Wall on a Slope

Designing retaining walls on sloped terrain adds another layer of complexity. The geometry of the slope influences both external stability and internal forces — and introduces the risk of deep-seated failure that extends beyond the wall itself. In these cases, careful assessment of global stability is essential, particularly when the retained soil sits above or below the toe of the wall.

Gabion walls are often the preferred choice for sloped terrain, especially in erosion-prone or remote environments. Their modular, permeable structure allows them to conform to uneven ground and relieve hydrostatic pressure, making them well-suited for projects where drainage and adaptability matter most. RSWall includes gabion wall analysis specifically to address these conditions.

Key considerations include:

• Accurate characterization of backfill and native soil.

• Accounting for hydrostatic and seepage pressures.

• Evaluating sliding, overturning, and bearing capacity under static and seismic loads.

• Ensuring overall slope stability using tools like Slide2 alongside wall design.

Other wall types may also be feasible depending on the site, but gabion walls remain a practical and reliable solution when working with complex terrain.

Key Failure Modes to Account For

Understanding failure modes is essential for reliable wall design. Failure can be categorized as external, internal, or related to the reinforcement system.

External failure modes include:

• Sliding at the base due to insufficient friction or passive resistance (seen in Figure 9 below).

• Overturning, especially in taller walls with high backfill loads.

• Bearing failure from excessive stress on foundation soils.

Internal failures can include:

• Toppling of facing elements or sections due to eccentric loading (seen in Figure 10 below).
• Internal sliding along weak planes in the reinforced zone.

Reinforcement-related failures often stem from:

• Tensile rupture of geosynthetics or steel (seen in Figure 11 below).
• Pullout failure due to insufficient embedment or inadequate friction.
• Connection failure between reinforcement and facing units.

Proper analysis and compliance with design standards like AASHTO or Eurocode help mitigate these risks.

RSWall Helps You Design With Confidence

RSWall supports the design of gravity, MSE, gabion, cantilever, and other wall types with detailed analysis of external, internal, and reinforcement failure modes. It’s built for engineers who need to manage complex loading, geometry, and site conditions in a single environment.

The software integrates directly with Slide2, allowing users to assess global stability alongside wall performance. Wall geometry and loading conditions can be exported into Slide2 with a few clicks—critical for projects on sloped terrain or soft foundations where deep-seated failure is a concern.

Key capabilities include:

• Simultaneous evaluation of external, internal, and reinforcement failure modes, including sliding, overturning, bearing, tensile rupture, and pullout.
• Support for design codes including AASHTO LRFD, Eurocode 7, BS8006, Australian Standard (AS4678), and user-defined.
• Explicit handling of groundwater, seismic acceleration, surcharges, and staged loading, including user-defined pore pressure conditions.
• Detailed force diagrams and visualizations that map out pressure distributions, reinforcement tension, and failure planes.
• Automated reporting with transparent factor of safety and CDR calculations, linked directly to input parameters for easy verification.

A Quick Look at a Typical RSWall Workflow

• Define geometry and materials: Import geometry or draw directly in the software. Select wall type, backfill, foundation soils, and reinforcements.
• Apply loads and site conditions: Include dead loads, surcharges, groundwater, seismic effects, and define drainage layers.
• Choose design standards: Select AASHTO, Eurocode, or custom settings for factors and partial resistances.
• Run analyses: RSWall automatically checks all relevant failure modes. Adjust geometry or reinforcement to meet design targets.
• Review results and generate reports: View factor of safety results by mode, examine force diagrams, and export detailed design reports.

Building Stronger Walls Starts Here

As retaining wall projects grow more complex, the need for integrated, adaptable design tools like RSWall is critical. With it, engineers can analyze a wider range of wall types, account for real-world conditions, and connect directly to global stability tools like Slide2 — bringing clarity and confidence to every project.

More from Rocscience