Active Earth Pressure against Rigid Retaining Walls Subjected to Confined Cohesionless Soil
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 17, Issue 6
Abstract
This study proposes a practical method for determining active earth pressure of confined cohesionless soil. A trapezoidal thrust wedge model confined by two vertical rigid retaining walls is developed to derive the governing equations of earth pressure distribution and the resultant force. The resultant force depends on the unknown incline angle of the sliding plane and must be maximized with respect to the angle. The active earth pressure can be determined once the incline angle is obtained by solving the governing equations with the finite-difference method. Based on these equations, parametric studies are conducted to investigate the effects of the confined width on the active earth pressure and the inclination of the sliding plane. As expected, the active earth pressure decreases with the confined width due to the arching effect. In contrast, the incline angle of the slip plane in the confined cohesionless soil is in close proximity to that of Coulomb’s solution. Moreover, the incline angle of the proposed solution and Coulomb’s solution are used to determine the active earth pressure, respectively. The results of the two solutions are almost equivalent. Based on these findings, a practical method is proposed, in which the incline angle of Coulomb’s solution is suggested for the derived equations to determine the active earth pressure of confined cohesionless soil. The proposed method provides satisfactory results when compared with previous studies.
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Acknowledgments
The financial support from the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC Grants 41172251, 41330633, and 41372282) is gratefully acknowledged.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 17 • Issue 6 • June 2017
Copyright
© 2016 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 6, 2015
Accepted: Oct 11, 2016
Published online: Nov 16, 2016
Discussion open until: Apr 16, 2017
Published in print: Jun 1, 2017
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