Estimation of Active Earth Pressure on Inclined Retaining Wall Based on Simplified Principal Stress Trajectory Method

Abstract

Because of the existence of wall-soil friction behind retaining wall, the transfer direction of the principal stress will be inevitably changed. Therefore, the arching effect of soil mass is considered and the circle principal stress trajectory is simplified to a tilt straight line. The differential thin-layer unit is divided along the direction of this approximate tilt linear principal stress trajectory. The major principal stress on the tilt linear principal stress trajectory is regarded as being linearly distributed with depth. Considering the limit equilibrium conditions of the layered soil, a new analytical method for determining the active earth pressure on the inclined retaining wall under translational mode in cohesionless soil mass is proposed. Compared with the measured values, the errors of the maximum active earth pressure obtained using the proposed method are less than 6%; thus, this method achieves satisfactory results. The parameter study indicated that the inclination of the retaining wall back has a significant influence on the failure angle of slip surface, the normal active earth pressure, and the height of application of the resultant force.