Theoretical analysis of active earth pressure behind a rigid retaining wall

Abstract

Abstract. The goal of this study is to precisely estimate the active earth pressure acting on a rigid retaining wall under translating mode. In this study, the problem of the retaining wall with a parabolic slip surface in the backfill behind the wall is investigated using a two-dimensional system of equilibrium, unlike the horizontal flat-element method considering soil arching effect for calculating active earth pressure. New equations are developed to calculate the magnitude and distribution of the active earth pressure. IntroductionA precise estimation of earth pressure is an extremely essential issue in geotechnical engineering. Conventionally, the classical Rankine and Coulomb theories with a simple consequence of linear distribution have been used to calculate the active earth pressure against rigid retaining walls. However, many experimental studies (Tsagareli [1], Sherif and Fang [2]) show that the distribution of active earth pressure acting on rough walls is nonlinear, and it depends on the mode of wall movement and soil-wall friction angle.Handy [3] suggested that the nonlinear distribution of active earth pressure acting on a rigid wall should result from soil arching effects. Later, many authors (Paik [4], Geol and Patra [5]) also investigated active earth pressure in terms of soil arching effects by means of minor principal stress trajectory. Paik attempted to apply the arching effects to the horizontal flat-element method in the investigation of active earth pressure against rigid retaining walls. Since then, the method of combining stress trajectory with differential flat elements in a wedge-shaped failure zone to investigate earth pressure attracted many researchers' attention and they also proposed various active earth pressure solutions by different shapes of stress trajectory and the inclined angle of failure surface under a plane slip surface assumption, except the parabolic slip surface used by Geol. (Geol [5]In this study, the problem of active earth pressure against a rigid retaining wall under the translation mode is investigated in a two-dimensional equilibrium system. With the assumption of uniform vertical stress in any horizontal plane, theoretical stress solution of any point in the failure zone are derived. Under the assumption of uniform vertical pressure and other reasonable boundary conditions, new solutions of active earth pressure are obtained by solving the two-dimensional equilibrium equations of a differential element.