Welcome to a new dimension in Retaining Wall Design.
REA Wall is a design software written with the user in mind that radically simplifies the design and analysis of earth structures. Modular retaining walls were designed with the contractor in mind and REA Wall was written with the designer in mind.
A completely new program and yet familiar to anyone experienced in wall design.
REA Wall was written from the ground up, starting with a good foundation in Object Oriented Programming (OOP) for well written, efficient code for fast execution and based on sound engineering principles of MSE design to produce economical, safe structures for years of service. The user interface is based on an 'OutlookTM' style layout to be easy to use and easy to navigate. Navigating through the program the user follows a natural progression in design:
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Section Information - the design has several options for design methods to select from depending on preference or required design codes, Section Information sets up the analysis based on the designer's preference. The designer selects the facing type to be used, this sets up the spacing intervals and properties for local stability checks.
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Geometry - How tall is the wall? What is the back slope geometry above the wall loading the structure? Is there a live load or dead load surcharge that will be supported by the structure?
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Soil Properties - An MSE structure is soil reinforced structure so naturally the soil properties are the most important part of the design, so after defining the geometry defining the soils is next.
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Reinforcing Properties - Aggregates are the most abundant construction materials on earth with good compressive strength but little to no tensile strength. Geogrid reinforcing adds the tensile strength to the soil mass to create the 'Coherent Gravity Mass' needed for a MSE structure. The larger the structure, the stronger the internal reinforcing needs to be. REA Wall provides properties for the most often used reinforcing materials and more can be added.
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Factors of Safety - REA Wall automatically generates design sections based on the required factor of safety specified. Lengths are increased to solve for sliding and overturning, layers are strengthened or spacing reduced to satisfy tension and connection criteria. When factors of safety are not met, output values are flagged in red or --NG-- to alert the designer to potential problems.
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Reduction Factors - when designing to a load reduction factor method, load and reduction factors are used instead of factors of safety. Tables are provided to input load factors for all the components required.
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Reinforcing - REA Wall has a database of the frequently used geosynthetic materials used in retaining wall design. More reinforcing materials can be added by updating the data files, independent of the main program.
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Seismic - Seismic design is done in accordance with the design method selected. NCMA and AASHTO yield significantly different answers due to the assumed distribution of the dynamic forces.
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