Retaining walls with no or little slab support at the top are often designed as purely cantilever.

[1] Further these cantilever walls are usually designed using 2D frame model or design spreadsheets which assume a 2D frame rather than 3D shell model with localized supports.

[2] Cantilever retaining walls are checked for sliding & overturning with factor of safety of 1.75 & 2 respectively while checking for earth pressure.

[3] Also the eccentricity of the load in ensured to be less than width/6.

[4] This often leads to quite conservative design and unrealistic foundation sizes especially for retaining wall with no or very small heel slab.

The approach given to design is valid for pure cantilever retaining wall, but do you feel a 3D shell analytical model with localized supports is needed to avoid overly conservative solution.

Please share your experiences on such similar situations.

Any comments and suggestions are welcomed.