Earth Pressures and Earth Retaining

Structures
 Lateral Support
In geotechnical engineering, it is often necessary to
prevent lateral soil movements.

Tie rod
Anchor

Sheet pile

Cantilever Braced excavation Anchored sheet pile 2

retaining wall
 Lateral Support

We have to estimate the lateral soil pressures acting on

these structures, to be able to design them.

Gravity Retaining Soil nailing

Reinforced earth wall 3
wall
Soil Nailing

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 Sheet Pile

Sheet piles marked for driving

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Sheet Pile

Sheet pile wall

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 Sheet Pile

During installation Sheet pile wall

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 Lateral Support

Reinforced earth walls are increasingly becoming popular.

geosynthetics

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 Lateral Support
filled with
Crib walls have been used in Queensland. soil
Good drainage & allow plant growth.
Looks good. Interlocking
stretchers
and headers

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 EARTH PRESSURE
The effect of 2 forms of earth pressure need to be considered
during the process of designing the retaining wall that is:
a)Active Earth Pressure
“ It is the pressure that at all times are tending
to move or overturn the retaining wall”
a)Passive Earth Pressure
“It is reactionary pressures that will react in
the form of a resistance to movement of the wall.

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At rest earth pressure

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 Earth Pressure at Rest
In a homogeneous natural soil deposit,
GL

v’
h’
X

the ratio h’/v’ is a constant known as coefficient

of earth pressure at rest (K0).

Importantly, at K0 state, there are no lateral strains.

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 Estimating K0

For normally consolidated clays and granular soils,

K0 = 1 – sin ’

For overconsolidated clays,

K0,overconsolidated = K0,normally consolidated OCR0.5

From elastic analysis,

 Poisson’s
K0 
1 ratio

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Active/Passive Earth Pressures
- in granular soils

Wall moves
away from soil

Wall moves A
towards soil
B

smooth wall

Let’s look at the soil elements A and B during the

wall movement. 21
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 ACTIVE EARTH PRESSURE
It is composed of the earth wedge being retained
together with any hydrostatic pressure caused by
the presence of groundwater.
This pressure can be reduced by:
i) The use of subsoil drainage behind the wall
ii) Inserting drainage openings called weep holes
through the thickness of the stem to enable the
water to drain away.

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 Active Earth Pressure
- in granular soils

v’ = z
Initially, there is no lateral movement.
v’ z
h’ = K0 v’ = K0 z
h’
A
As the wall moves away from the soil,
v’ remains the same; and
h’ decreases till failure occurs.

Active state
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 Active Earth Pressure
- in granular soils

As the wall moves away from the soil,



Initially (K0 state)

Failure (Active state)

v’ 
active earth
pressure decreasing h’
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 Active Earth Pressure
- in granular soils


WJM Rankine
(1820-1872)

[h’]active v’ 

[ h ' ]active  K A v '

Rankine’s coefficient of
1  sin  active earth pressure
KA   tan2 (45   / 2)
1  sin  27
 Active Earth Pressure
- in granular soils
 Failure plane is at
45 + /2 to horizontal v’
h’
45 + /2 A

 90+

[h’]active v’ 

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 Active Earth Pressure
- in granular soils

As the wall moves away from the soil,

h’ decreases till failure occurs.

h’ K0 state
v’ z
Active
h’
A state

wall movement

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Active Earth Pressure
- in cohesive soils

Follow the same steps as

for granular soils. Only
difference is that c  0.

[ h ' ]active  K A v '2c K A

Everything else the same

as for granular soils.
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PASSIVE EARTH PRESSURE
• This pressure build up in front of the toe to
resist the movement of the wall if it tries to
move forward.
• This pressure can be increased by
enlarging the depth of the toe or by
forming a rib on the underside of the base.

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 Passive Earth Pressure
- in granular soils

Initially, soil is in K0 state.

As the wall moves towards the soil,

v’ remains the same, and
v’
h’ increases till failure occurs.
h’
B
Passive state

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 Passive Earth Pressure
- in granular soils

As the wall moves towards the soil,


Initially (K0 state)
Failure (Active state)

passive earth
pressure

v’ 

increasing h’
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 Passive Earth Pressure
- in granular soils



v’ [h’]passive 

[ h ' ] passive  K P v '

Rankine’s coefficient of
1  sin  passive earth pressure
KP   tan2 (45   / 2)
1  sin  39
 Passive Earth Pressure
- in granular soils
 Failure plane is at
45 - /2 to horizontal v’
45 - /2 h’
A

 90+

v’ [h’]passive

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 Passive Earth Pressure
- in granular soils

As the wall moves towards the soil,

h’ increases till failure occurs.

h’ Passive state

v’
h’
B
K0 state

wall movement

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Passive Earth Pressure
- in cohesive soils

Follow the same steps as

for granular soils. Only
difference is that c  0.

[ h ' ] passive  K P v '2c K P

Everything else the same

as for granular soils.
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Rankine’s Theory: Special Cases

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 Earth Pressure Distribution
- in granular soils
[h’]active
PA and PP are the
resultant active and
passive thrusts on
the wall

[h’]passive H

PA=0.5 KAH2

h PP=0.5 KPh2

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KPh KAH
 h’

Passive state

Active state
K0 state

Wall movement
(not to scale)
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Retaining Walls - Applications
Metros and Subways

Road
Train

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Retaining Walls - Applications

highway

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Retaining Walls - Applications

High-rise building

basement wall

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 Gravity Retaining Walls

cement mortar
plain concrete or
stone masonry
cobbles

They rely on their self weight to

support the backfill
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Cantilever Retaining Walls

Reinforced;
smaller section
than gravity
walls

They act like vertical cantilever,

fixed to the ground 57
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EXAMPLES

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PROBLEM

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 SOLUTION q = 20 kN/m2

Coefficient of Lateral Pressure : 2m

Pa1
Active ; ka = tan2(45-1/2) = 0.704
Passive ; kp = tan2(45+2/2) = 1.698

8m
4m

Pw2 Pp1 Pa2 Pq1 Pw1

Active Lateral Pressure
Pa1 = ka . 1 . h1 – 2 . c . ka = 0.704 . 15 . 2 – 2 . 0 . 0.704 = 21.12 kN/m2
Pa2 = ka . (1 . h1 + 1’ . h2) – 2 . c . ka = 49.28 kN/m2 69
 SOLUTION
q = 20 kN/m2

Coefficient of Lateral Pressure : 2m

Pa1
Active ; ka = tan2(45-1/2) = 0.704
Passive ; kp = tan2(45+2/2) = 1.698

8m
4m

Pw2 Pp1 Pa2 Pq1 Pw1

Active Lateral Pressure
Pq1 = ka . q = 0.704 . 20 = 14.08 kN/m2
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Pw1 = kw . w . h2 = 1 . 10 . 8 = 80 kN/m2
 SOLUTION q = 20 kN/m2

Coefficient of Lateral Pressure : 2m

Pa1
Active ; ka = tan2(45-1/2) = 0.704
Passive ; kp = tan2(45+2/2) = 1.698

8m
4m

Pw2 Pp1 Pa2 Pq1 Pw1

PASSIVE LATERAL
PRESSURE
Pp1 = kp . 2’ . h3 + 2 . c . kp = 1.698 . 5 . 4 + 2 . 0 . 1.698 = 33.96 kN/m2
Pw2 = kw . w . h3 = 1 . 10 . 4 = 40 kN/m2 71
 SOLUTION
q = 20 kN/m2

Coefficient of Lateral Pressure : 2m

Pa1
Active ; ka = tan2(45-1/2) = 0.704
Passive ; kp = tan2(45+2/2) = 1.698

Pa

8m
Pp za
4m
zp
Pw2 Pp1 Pa2 Pq1 Pw1
ACTIVE LATERAL FORCE
Pa = 0.5 . Pa1 . h1 + (Pa1+Pa2)/2 . H2 + Pq1 . (h1+h2) + 0.5 . Pw1 . h2 = 763.52 kN/m
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za = 3.56 m
 SOLUTION q = 20 kN/m2

Coefficient of Lateral Pressure : 2m

Pa1
Active ; ka = tan2(45-1/2) = 0.704
Passive ; kp = tan2(45+2/2) = 1.698

Pa

8m
Pp za
4m
zp
Pw2 Pp1 Pa2 Pq1 Pw1
PASSIVE LATERAL FORCE
Pp = 0.5 . Pp1 . h3 + 0.5 . Pw2 . h3 = 147.92 kN/m
zp = 4/3 m 73
Coulomb’s Theory: Active Earth Pressure

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Coulomb’s Theory: Passive Earth Pressure

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