Technical Guidance Note (Level 2, No. 2): Designing a steel column

This guidance note describes the different types of pile presently in use, the design concepts that are employed when determining their size and depth, how they are constructed and the various tests that can be carried out to assess a pile's integrity.

Although retaining walls have been the subject of two earlier Technical Guidance Notes; No. 8 (Level 1): Derivation of loading to retaining structures and No. 33 (Level 1): Retaining wall construction, their design has not been covered. This guidance note focuses specifically on the design of reinforced concrete gravity retaining walls. There are three different forms of this type of wall, all of which are designed to resist overturning and sliding failure. The primary difference between them is their height. The taller the retaining wall, the more likely that counterforts and beams spanning between them will be necessary. This note describes how all of these forms of retaining wall can be designed. (This article was updated in October 2016 to reflect errata issued since its original publication.)

This Technical Guidance Note concerns the design of pile-caps for small groups of piles e.g. 2-4 piles. It relies on the strut and tie method to determine the amount of reinforcement required in the pile-cap; which is dependent upon the depth of the cap, the magnitude of the axial load being placed upon it, the cap’s concrete strength and the pile size and spacing.