Displacement-Dependent Lateral Earth Pressure Models

Abstract

A model for evaluating the lateral earth pressure distribution for retaining walls as a function of intermediate displacement between the full active and passive states is proposed in this paper. The proposed method can be readily used in practice without prior knowledge of earth pressure measurements. The efficacy of the proposed approach is demonstrated through the comparison of the estimated earth pressure coefficients with the experimental results. The proposed approach is useful in assessing the dependence of correction factors for Rankine’s solutions on the effective friction angle and the magnitude of displacement to account for the prefailure behavior of soil at any intermediate state. Similar to a wall pushing into the retained soil, passive earth pressures are generated around driven piles. The coefficient of earth pressure from the suggested model is coupled with cavity expansion theory to estimate the depth of ground heave induced by pile driving. The results of the proposed approach in estimating the ground heave are compared with the finite-element solutions.