Retaining Wall Stability Check
Check a gravity retaining wall for overturning, sliding and base-pressure stability. Enter wall size, soil properties and surcharge to get Rankine active thrust, factors of safety against overturning and sliding, resultant eccentricity and toe/heel bearing pressures — metric or imperial.
Input
Total height of retained soil, from the underside of the base.
Width of the wall base, toe to heel. Wall is treated as a solid block of this width.
kN/m³ or pcf. Concrete ≈ 24 kN/m³ (150 pcf); masonry ≈ 20 kN/m³ (125 pcf).
Soil–concrete friction under the base; typically 2/3 of the foundation soil φ.
kPa or psf, on the ground behind the wall.
Soil buried in front of the toe. Adds passive resistance to sliding and overturning. Leave 0 to ignore (conservative).
Output
| Check | Value |
|---|---|
| No data yet | |
More ways to use this tool
REST API
curl -X POST https://api.iotools.cloud/v1/tool/retaining-wall-stability-check \
-H "Authorization: Bearer YOUR_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{
"units": "metric",
"height": "3",
"baseWidth": "2",
"wallUnitWeight": "24",
"soilUnitWeight": "18",
"frictionAngle": "30",
"baseFriction": "20",
"surcharge": "0",
"embedment": "0",
"targetOverturning": "2",
"targetSliding": "1.5"
}'Swap in your own key from your account. The tool's fields are the body — no wrapper.
Ask an AI agent
Use the IOTools `retaining-wall-stability-check` tool (Retaining Wall Stability Check) on this input:
YOUR_INPUT_HEREPaste this at any agent connected to the IOTools MCP server, then add your input.
Embed widget
<iframe
src="https://iotools.cloud/embed/retaining-wall-stability-check/"
width="100%" height="520" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" loading="lazy"
title="Retaining Wall Stability Check — iotools.cloud"
sandbox="allow-scripts allow-forms allow-same-origin allow-downloads allow-popups allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox"
allow="clipboard-write"
style="width:100%;border:1px solid #e5e7eb;border-radius:12px;overflow:hidden"></iframe>
<script src="https://iotools.cloud/embed.js" async></script>Drop this into your own page — free, no key required, just a link back.
| Cost per API/MCP call | From 5 credits |
|---|---|
| Need more credits? | View pricing |
Also available with
Guides
Check a gravity retaining wall against the three classic stability failures — overturning, sliding and excessive base pressure — in one step. Enter the wall size and soil properties and the tool returns the Rankine active thrust, the factors of safety, where the resultant lands on the base, and the toe and heel bearing pressures.
How to use it
- Pick metric or imperial units.
- Enter the wall height (H) and base width (B) and the wall's unit weight.
- Enter the backfill unit weight and friction angle, and the base friction angle.
- Add a surcharge if the ground behind the wall is loaded, and a toe embedment if soil sits in front of the toe.
- Set the factors of safety you need (defaults: 2.0 overturning, 1.5 sliding) and read the pass/fail breakdown.
What it calculates
- Active thrust — Rankine Ka = tan²(45° − φ/2), giving ½·Ka·γ·H² from the soil plus Ka·q·H from the surcharge, acting at H/3 and H/2.
- Overturning — resisting moment about the toe (wall weight plus optional passive resistance) divided by the overturning moment.
- Sliding — W·tan δ (plus passive resistance) divided by the thrust.
- Eccentricity and bearing — the resultant's position on the base. Inside the middle third the base pressure is trapezoidal; outside it, the pressure is redistributed and the heel lifts.
Assumptions
The wall is treated as a solid rectangular block with level backfill, and the soil sitting over the heel is ignored (a conservative simplification). Passive resistance is off unless you give an embedment depth. Results are a quick check, not a substitute for a full design to your local code.