Earth Pressure Analysis and Retaining Walls

Retaining walls are structures used not only to retain earth but also water and other materials such as coal, ore, etc. where conditions do not permit the mass to assume its natural slope. In this chapter, after considering the types of retaining wall, earth pressure theories are developed in estimating the lateral pressure exerted by the soil on a retaining structure for at-rest, active, and passive cases. The effect of sloping backfill, wall friction, surcharge load, point loads, line loads, and strip loads are analyzed. Karl Culmann's graphical method can be used for determining both active and passive earth pressures. The analysis of braced excavations, sheet piles, and anchored sheet pile walls are considered and practical considerations in the design of retaining walls are treated. They include saturated backfill, wall friction, stability both external and internal, bearing capacity, and proportioning the dimensions of the retaining wall. Finally, a brief treatment of earth pressure on underground structures is included.

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 570-581
Author(s):  
Meriem F. Bouali ◽  
Mahdi O. Karkush ◽  
Mounir Bouassida

Abstract The general assumption of linear variation of earth pressures with depth on retaining structures is still controversial; investigations are yet required to determine those distributions of the passive earth pressure (PEP) accurately and deduce the corresponding centroid location. In particular, for rigid retaining walls, the calculation of PEP is strongly dependent on the type of wall movement. This paper presents a numerical analysis for studying the influence of wall movement on the PEP distribution on a rigid retaining wall and the passive earth thrust location. The numerical predictions are remarkably similar to existing experimental works as recorded on scaled test models and full-scale retaining walls. It is observed that the PEP varies linearly with depth for the horizontal translation, but it is nonlinear when the movement is rotational about the top of the retaining wall. When rotation is around the top of the wall, the resultant of PEP is located at a depth that varies between 0.164 and 0.259H of the wall height measured from the base of the wall, which is lesser than 1/3 of the wall height. The passive earth thrust location is highly affected by the soil–wall friction angle, especially when the friction angle of the backfill material increases. Despite the herein presented results, further experiments are recommended to assess the corresponding numerical predictions.


2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 6 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Gupta ◽  
V. Yadav ◽  
V. A. Sawant ◽  
R. Agarwal

Design of retaining walls under seismic conditions is based on the calculation of seismic earth pressurebehind the wall. To calculate the seismic active earth pressure behind the vertical retaining wall, many researchers reportanalytical solutions using the pseudo-static approach for both cohesionless and cohesive soil backfill. Design charts havebeen presented for the calculation of seismic active earth pressure behind vertical retaining walls in the non-dimensionalform. For inclined retaining walls, the analytical solutions for the calculation of seismic active earth pressure as well as thedesign charts (in non-dimensional form) have been reported in few studies for c-ϕ soil backfill. One analytical solution forthe calculation of seismic active earth pressure behind inclined retaining walls by Shukla (2015) is used in the present studyto obtain the design charts in non-dimensional form. Different field parameters related with wall geometry, seismic loadings,tension cracks, soil backfill properties, surcharge and wall friction are used in the present analysis. The present study hasquantified the effect of negative and positive wall inclination as well as the effect of soil cohesion (c), angle of shearingresistance (ϕ), surcharge loading (q) and the horizontal and vertical seismic coefficient (kh and kv) on seismic active earthpressure with the help of design charts for c-ϕ soil backfill. The design charts presented here in non-dimensional form aresimple to use and can be implemented by field engineers for design of inclined retaining walls under seismic conditions. Theactive earth pressure coefficients for cohesionless soil backfill achieved from the present study are validated with studiesreported in the literature.


2010 ◽  
Vol 168-170 ◽  
pp. 200-205
Author(s):  
Fei Song ◽  
Jian Min Zhang ◽  
Lu Yu Zhang

The evaluation of earth pressure is of vital importance for the design of various retaining walls and infrastructures. Experimental studies show that earth pressures are closely related to the mode and amount of wall displacement. In this paper, based on the reveal of the formation mechanism of earth pressures against rigid retaining wall with RTT mode, a new method is proposed to calculate the earth pressure distribution in such conditions. Finally, the effectiveness of the method is confirmed by the experimental results.


1982 ◽  
Vol 19 (3) ◽  
pp. 213-224 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. F. Anderson ◽  
T. H. Hanna ◽  
D. A. Ponniah ◽  
S. A. Shah

Laboratory-scale tests simulating field construction procedures have been carried out to examine the behaviour of the soil–wall–anchor system when a rigid retaining wall, restrained by anchors, supports a sand backfill on which there is surface loading. Two main series of tests have been carried out, one with a uniform load applied over the whole backfill surface, and the other with a strip load applied parallel to the wall and at a varying distance from it. In both series of tests the intensity of loading was varied, and in the series with uniform loading on the backfill the effects of varying anchor inclination were studied. During all stages of construction wall movements, earth pressures, anchor loads, wall base reaction, and backfill surface subsidence were monitored. Although a conservative approach was used in the determination of the anchor loads, wall movements, and consequently backfill subsidence, were considerable. Similar movements at full scale could lead to settlement damage in a structure founded on a shallow mat or strip footings on a backfill, so tentative suggestions are made for more conservative earth pressure distribution assumptions for design purposes for the two cases studied.


2013 ◽  
Vol 275-277 ◽  
pp. 1154-1157
Author(s):  
Yun Lian Song ◽  
Si Li ◽  
Jian Ran Cao

Stability problem of gravity retaining wall structure was researched, and a simplified formula of the active earth pressure Ea was turned out for the convenience of the program design. The anti-slide safety factor K0 and anti-overturning safety factor Kc were derived based on different positions of slip plane of retaining wall. This work is the basis of the reliability calculating and program design, for these formulas must be used in anti-slide and anti-overturning safety failure mode in program compiling. On the basis of the known parameters such as wall type, wall dimensions, material parameters, external load, and so on, the program can automatically calculate K0 and Kc, their corresponding failure probability Pf and reliability index β can easily be calculated in later analysis. The research content provide a convenient calculation method, which is used to calculate the Ea and K0 and Kc and Pf and β of the actual retaining walls engineering.


2019 ◽  
Vol 56 (7) ◽  
pp. 970-982 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nuno Cristelo ◽  
Carlos Félix ◽  
Joaquim Figueiras

It is now accepted that current expeditious models for determining earth pressures on flexible underground structures under compacted layers do not include several technical nuances of the soil–structure interaction. Thus, these models are not capable of delivering an optimized design. The present paper compares the results from the well-known American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials (AASHTO) model with two different numerical models — a user-friendly elastic model and a more robust finite element model — and with results retrieved from a full-scale monitoring of a concrete box culvert, 5.5 m high and 3.77 m width, over which a 15 m high embankment was built. This structure was instrumented selectively, over a period of almost 1 year, during which several parameters were recorded, including earth pressures and structural deformation. Results have shown that the two most significant drawbacks associated with the use of the AASHTO model are the inadequate evaluation of vertical pressure on the top slab and the coefficient of earth pressure, which results in a significant overestimation of the lateral pressures and, consequently, in an overall inefficient design of the structure.


2012 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sima Ghosh

Knowledge of passive resistance is extremely important and it is the basic data required for the design of geotechnical structures like the retaining wall moving towards the backfill, the foundations, the anchors etc. An attempt is made to develop a formulation for the evolution of seismic passive resistance of a retaining wall supporting c-F backfill using pseudo-static method. Considering a planar rupture surface, the formulation is developed in such a way so that a single critical wedge surface is generated. The variation of seismic passive earth pressure coefficient are studied for wide range of variation of parameters like angle of internal friction, angle of wall friction, cohesion, adhesion, surcharge, unit weight of the backfill material, height and seismic coefficients.


2013 ◽  
Vol 639-640 ◽  
pp. 682-687
Author(s):  
Qing Guang Yang ◽  
Jie Liu ◽  
Jie He ◽  
Shan Huang Luo

Considering the movement effect of translation mode,friction angle reduction coefficient and method of bevel-layer analysis,estimation of active earth pressures is deduced for cohesiveless soil retaining wall with translation mode.In order to validate the feasibility of the proposed approach,a model test for active earth pressures was conducted in laboratory;and the proposed method was used to analyze this model. Experimental and theoretical results indicate that the curve of active earth pressure increases firstly and decreases then along the depth of retaining wall with different values of s/sc,and it has a point of intersection with the curve of Coulomb active earth pressure at the depth of 0.6H,where H is the wall height. Further study indicates that the action point position of the active earth pressure is higher than 1/3 times wall height.


2021 ◽  
Vol 1197 (1) ◽  
pp. 012030
Author(s):  
Jayesh Harode ◽  
Kuldeep Dabhekar ◽  
P.Y. Pawade ◽  
Isha Khedikar

Abstract It is now becoming very essential to analyse the behaviour of retaining structures due to their wide infrastructural applications. The important factors which are affecting the stability of the retaining wall are the distribution of earth pressure on the wall, material of backfill & its reaction against earth pressure. There are several types of retaining walls, out of them the cantilever retaining wall is adopted for present design and study. In this paper, the study of literature based on the design of the cantilever retaining walls under seismic or dynamic conditions is studied. From the studied literature, many authors performed their calculations in Excel sheets by a manual method. Then the Results obtained from the manual calculation are then validated in STAAD pro. Several authors show the calculated quantity of steel and concrete required for various heights of walls. It is also concluded from the study that the design of cantilever retaining wall is suitable, safe, and economical up to a height of 6m, after that banding moment at toe increases. Some authors have also shown the calculated factor of safety for different height conditions. From the study of mentioned literature, we can recommended to also show the graph of bending moment with height variation. Both the designs are done for various heights ranging from 3 m to 6 m.


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