Active Earth Pressure Calculation of Equilateral Convex Corners in Excavation Engineering

Abstract

The presence of convex corners will affect the earth pressure calculation, but there is a paucity of studies on calculating the ground pressure of convex corners in excavation engineering. To address this issue, equilateral convex corners are divided into two types according to the relative relationship between the side length size of equilateral convex corners and the excavation depth, and their respective earth pressure calculation model is established. The microelement static equilibrium equation is set by the horizontal layer analysis method, and then the equations for calculating active earth pressure strength, active earth pressure, and active earth pressure acting points on the equilateral convex corners are derived. The example analysis and comparative Plaxis three-dimensional (3D) finite-element verification show that the friction angle in the soil is an important factor in distinguishing between two kinds of equilateral convex corners, and the active earth pressure strength, the active earth pressure, and the acting point will be affected by the side length and rotation angle, where the influence of the side length on the active earth pressure strength is relatively small. The active earth pressure may show a variety of different variation laws affected by soil parameters. The acting point will move in both directions of the plane with the change of side length and rotation angle. The theoretical calculations of active earth pressure agree with the results of three-dimensional simulations, which may explain the rationality and practicality of the theoretical method in this paper.