Active Earth Pressure Behind Retaining Walls

Abstract

A simple and realistic analytical procedure is described to estimate the eveloped lateral earth pressure behind the rigid retaining wall with cohesionless backfill soil experiencing outward tilt about the base. Included are various stages of wall tilt starting from an initial active state to a full active state. The initial active state is defined as a stage of wall tilt when the soil element at the ground surface experiences a sufficient amount of lateral displacement to reach an active condition, whereas the full active state occurs when the soil elements along the entire depth of the wall are in active condition. The predictions from the developed method of analysis are compared with the model test measurements. The comparison shows very good agreements at various stages of the retaining wall tilt.