Lateral Earth Pressure and Retaining Walls

The problems solved in this chapter are divided into three major categories: The evaluation of the magnitude and distribution of lateral earth pressure behind a retaining wall and understanding the concepts of active and passive failure. Other factors considered are the effects of the surface load and stratified backfill (Problem 8.1), sloping backfill (Problem 8.2), the location of water table (Problem 8.3), and the existence of friction or adhesion on the interface between wall and backfill (Problem 8.4). In the above problems a Rankine type method where the lateral pressure increases linearly with depth is adopted. For this purpose the corresponding active and passive earth pressure coefficients are formulated. For a wall with significant friction, and irregular ground surface, a Coulomb wedge analysis , can be applied (Problem 8.5). In this method the actual lateral pressure distribution is not defined but based on experimental data, the location of the resultant of these (lateral) pressures can be obtained. The stability of different types of retaining walls that are subjected to lateral earth pressures are then explained in Problems 8.6 and 8.7. The static analysis of sheet pile walls are demonstrated in Problems 8.9 and 8.10 along with determination of the maximum bending moment in the sheet pile and analysis of the anchorage system in an anchored sheet pile. This category (Problem 8.11) investigates the stability of a reinforced soil where the lateral earth pressures are resisted by reinforcement elements rather than the retaining wall.