Study on Design of Reinforced Earth Retaining Wall with Copper Slag as Fill Material

Abstract

Reinforced earth walls have been widely used for retaining soils due to their lower construction cost and flexibility. The fill materials used in reinforced earth walls such as moorum (silty gravel) and river sand are getting scanty day by day as they are also the major building materials. In order to overcome this scenario, alternate fill materials for use in reinforced soil structures are need to be explored. The studies carried out by various researchers enabled the use of copper slag as fill material in reinforced earth walls. In the present study reinforced earth walls for retaining backfill heights of 4–10 m are designed according to BS 8006–1:2010 and are compared with reinforced earth walls designed for the same heights using conventional fill material in non-seismic and seismic conditions. Copper slag has high angle of shearing resistance of about 41° at OMC and MDD conditions and 38° in saturated condition due to presence of rough textured angular particles. Though copper slag induced relatively more bearing pressures due to its relative high unit weight, the induced tensile forces are observed to reduce by about 10–13% when compared to the conventional fill material moorum in both non-seismic and seismic conditions.