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Basement Wall Design and Analysis

The document discusses basement wall design considerations. It describes two cases: 1) when the wall only supports itself and is subjected to lateral earth pressure, requiring cantilever reinforcement; and 2) when upper floors are constructed, the wall acts as a propped cantilever supporting itself and vertical loads from earth pressure. It also specifies minimum wall thicknesses, and shows three common loading cases with diagrams: 1) dry/moist backfill without surcharge, 2) submerged backfill, and 3) backfill with uniform surcharge. Design must account for lateral earth pressure as a live load using load factors.

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Youkhanna Zayia
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51 views6 pages

Basement Wall Design and Analysis

The document discusses basement wall design considerations. It describes two cases: 1) when the wall only supports itself and is subjected to lateral earth pressure, requiring cantilever reinforcement; and 2) when upper floors are constructed, the wall acts as a propped cantilever supporting itself and vertical loads from earth pressure. It also specifies minimum wall thicknesses, and shows three common loading cases with diagrams: 1) dry/moist backfill without surcharge, 2) submerged backfill, and 3) backfill with uniform surcharge. Design must account for lateral earth pressure as a live load using load factors.

Uploaded by

Youkhanna Zayia
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

2.

2 Basement Walls
It is a common practice to assume that basement walls span vertically between the basement-floor slab
and the first-floor slab. Two possible cases of design should be investigated for a basement wall.

First, when the wall only has been built on top of the basement floor slab, the wall will be subjected to
lateral earth pressure with no vertical loads except its own weight. The wall in this case acts as a cantilever,
and adequate reinforcement should be provided for a cantilever wall design. This case can be avoided by
installing the basement and the first-floor slabs before backfilling against the wall.

Second, when the first-floor and the other floor slabs have been constructed and the building is fully
loaded, the wall in this case will be designed as a propped cantilever wall subjected to earth pressure and
to vertical load.

In addition to drainage, a waterproofing or damp-proofing membrane must be laid or applied to the


external face of the wall. The ACI Code, Section 11.3.1.1, specifies that the minimum thickness of an
exterior basement wall and its foundation is 7.5 in. In general, the minimum thickness of bearing walls is
1/25 of the unsupported height or length, whichever is shorter, or 4 in.

To help with the analysis, Figure 1,2 and 3 shows the most common loading cases with base pressure. The
ACI code considers the lateral earth pressure to be live load. Hence, we must multiply the moments that
are calculated from unfactored pressures by a load factor of 1.6 to get Mu Max.
Case (1): Dry or Moist Backfill with no Surcharge.

z
H
R.W.
H/3

Pa .at..base = K a ..H ….acting at H/3 from base


 1 − sin 
where K a = tan 2 (45  − ) =
2 1 + sin 
Case (2): Submerged Backfill
(a) Fully Submerged (b) Partially Submerged

W.T.
G.S.

H1
H Pw
R.W. PA R.W.
H/2 H2
H/3

Pa .at..base = K a . .H +  w .H

Case (3): Backfill with Uniform Surcharge

q/unit area

H
R.W.

The effect of the surcharge of intensity q is the same as that of a fill of height equal to q/ above the
q
ground surface. K a . . = K a .q

Example: (Ref. Structural concrete theory and design 7th Edition Pages 444-447)

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