Enter wall geometry, material properties, soil parameters, seismic criteria, and loads directly into the engineering calculation workflow.
AASHTO LRFD design workflow
AI-Powered AASHTO LRFD Retaining Wall Design Software
PaiaRetain offers two ways to begin a retaining-wall design. With user-input design, engineers specify the wall geometry, material properties, soil parameters, seismic criteria, and loads. With AI-generated design, AI assistance helps turn preliminary design criteria into an initial set of design inputs for engineer review. The existing PaiaRetain engineering calculation engine performs the earth-pressure, seismic, stability, and structural checks on the selected inputs and produces detailed reports. AI assistance does not replace professional engineering judgment, independent verification, or project-specific code review.
Two Ways to Design
Use AI assistance to generate a preliminary retaining-wall design, review the proposed parameters, and evaluate the reviewed inputs using PaiaRetain's engineering calculation engine. AI assistance does not independently verify engineering compliance or replace professional judgment.
Retaining wall design features
Capabilities below reflect the existing retaining-wall calculation workflow.
Evaluate active pressure using Equivalent Fluid Pressure, Rankine, or Coulomb methods, with passive pressure and surcharge loads.
Use available seismic options, including Mononobe-Okabe and the distributed load method option, with seismic force effects in the stability workflow.
Review service and factored vertical and lateral effects, stabilizing moments, and overturning moments for the supported combinations.
Check eccentricity, overturning-related force effects, soil or rock bearing resistance, and sliding resistance.
Design footing toe and heel flexure and shear from the calculated pressure distribution and factored demands.
Review wall-stem flexural and shear checks, crack control, minimum reinforcement, and reinforcement detailing outputs.
Design standards and engineering review
The technical reference is organized around the AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications, primarily the 10th Edition (2024), with supported references to Sections 3, 5, 10, and 11.
Engineering responsibility: PaiaRetain is a calculation aid and does not claim universal code compliance or certification. Confirm the adopted AASHTO LRFD edition, project geotechnical conditions, resistance factors, drainage, seismic criteria, and detailing requirements with a qualified engineer.
For equations, assumptions, implementation notes, and the one-dimensional analysis limitation, see the Retaining Wall Technical Reference.
Sample Retaining Wall Calculations
Review a complete example of the retaining-wall calculation workflow, including stability and reinforced-concrete design checks.
Start Retaining Wall Design
Open the existing PaiaRetain project workflow to create or select a project, then add a retaining-wall calculation. Login and registration behavior remain unchanged.