1.

4 Rankines active Earth Pressure Theory

Rankines
Theory:
As
originally
proposed,
Rankines theory of lateral earth pressure is applied
to uniform cohisionless soil only. Later
it was
extended to cohesive soils by Resal and Bell. The
theory has also been extended to stratified, partially
immersed and submerged soil.
This theory is valid when:
The back of the wall is vertical and smooth
The level of the soil behind the wall is horizontal
Soil mass is semi-infinite, homogeneous, dry and
cohesionless
The length of the wall is long in comparison to
the height so
that it can be treated two dimensional situations.

Rankines Theory assumes that failure will occur

when the maximum principal stress at any point
reaches a value equal to thetensile stressin a
simple tension specimen at failure. This theory
does not take into account the effect of the other
two principal stresses. Rankines theory is
satisfactory
for brittle materials, and not
applicable to ductile materials.
This theory is also called theMaximum Stress
Theory.
The Rankine theory assumes a frictionless soilwall interface and a vertical wall (no wall slope).

1.5 Coulombs theory: He highlighted that

if the wall is not friction less unlike assumed
in Rankines case the lateral earth pressure
applied by the soil is not normal to the wall
but at an angle or in other word has both
horizontal and a vertical components.
Solutions from the coulomb theory can be
obtained from the situations when the back
of the wall is not vertical but is inclined at an
angle to the horizontal and the soil behind
the wall is not horizontal but inclined at
an angle to the horizontal

Assumptions:
The backfill is dry and cohesionless,
homogeneous,
istropic
and
elastically
undeformable but breakable.
The slip surface is the plane which passes
through the heel of the wall.
The sliding wedge itself acts as a rigid
body and the value of earth pressure is
obtained
by
considering
the
limiting
equilibrium of the sliding wedge as a whole.