Lateral Earth Pressures

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 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,

Poissons
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

Lets look at the soil elements A and B during the

wall movement. 12
 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 '

Rankines coefficient of
1 sin active earth pressure
KA tan 2 (45 / 2)
1 sin 15
 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
- 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

increasing h
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 Passive Earth Pressure
- in granular soils

v [h]passive

[ h ' ] passive K P v '

Rankines coefficient of
1 sin passive earth pressure
KP tan 2 (45 / 2)
1 sin 21
 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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 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 KAH2

h PP=0.5 KPh2

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KPh KAH
 h
Passive state

Active state
K0 state

Wall movement
(not to scale)
Rankines Earth Pressure Theory

[ h ' ]active K A v '2c K A

[ h ' ] passive K P v '2c K P

Assumes smooth wall

Applicable only on vertical walls

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Retaining Walls - Applications

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 32
 Design of Retaining Wall
- in granular soils

2 2
Block no.

3 3
1
1

toe
toe

Wi = weight of block i
Analyse the stability of this rigid body with
xi = horizontal distance of centroid of block i from toe
vertical walls (Rankine theory valid) 33
Safety against sliding along the base
PP {Wi }. tan
soil-concrete friction
angle 0.5 0.7
Fsliding
PA

to be greater
than 1.5

2 2
PA H
3 3 PA
1
PP 1
S h PP
toe S
R
toe
y R
y

PP= 0.5 KPh2 PA= 0.5 KAH2

Safety against overturning about toe
PP h / 3 {Wi xi }
Foverturning
PA H/3

to be greater
than 2.0

2 2
PA H
3 3 PA
1
PP 1
S h PP
toe S
R
toe
y R
y
 Points to Ponder

How does the key help in improving the stability

against sliding?

Shouldnt we design retaining walls to resist at-rest

(than active) earth pressures since the thrust on the
wall is greater in K0 state (K0 > KA)?

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