Retaining wall deflection 3

I assume you are talking about concrete cantilever walls. Short answer: H/240

Long answer: It's ok to deflect as long as it doesn't fail. Deflection on retaining walls is more of a stability criteria, rather than serviceability.

I have always based my calcs on the following assumption:
If a cantilever wall is rigid, it deflects too little. Therefore earth pressures should be at rest (K0).
If a cantilever wall is flexible, it deflects too much. Active wedge develops and use active earth pressures (Ka). Cracked section properties are more suitable to justify the soil activation.

EN 1997-1 sets the limit between which scenario you got:


Depending on your scenario you would either calculate a stiff cantilever with a big force, or a flexible/cracked cantilever with a smaller force. You probably want to be safe - design for the worst. It's ok to deflect as long as it doesn't fail.

The point of application of this force is 1/3 from the base because of triangular distribution. This is a design assumption. If you have earthquakes, follow the relevant earthquake code. EN 1998-5 has some additional rules. I have seen earthquake forces at either 1/3 or 1/2 the height from the base in different cases.

Creep: I have never considered it for a retaining wall.

So all in all, depends on the force, which depends on the soil, which depends on an awful lot of things. So I always advise to design at-rest to be safe.

No one’s going to complain about H/100 unless it’s a critical application. It’s common for walls to deflect around 1degree, and that’s more than H/100.

Great, thanks for the comments kostast88 and Tomfh.
This gives me a bit more confidence.