Passive Earth Pressure of Narrow Cohesionless Backfill Against Rigid Retaining Walls Rotating About the Base
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21, Issue 1
Abstract
In engineering, retaining walls commonly rotate about the base (RB) and narrow backfill is often compressed. Current methods cannot accurately predict the passive earth pressure of a narrow, cohesionless backfill against the retaining wall. Therefore, this study will investigate the passive failure mechanism of narrow, cohesionless backfill under the RB mode using lower-bound finite element limit analysis (FELA). The backfill area above the slip surface reached a plastic state. This type of phenomenon means that stress deflection occurs in a narrow backfill, which is affected by the boundary conditions on each side. The principal stress trajectory is assumed to be a concave circular arc. In addition, a method to determine the stress trajectory, stress deflection angle, and lateral earth pressure coefficient will be proposed through stress analysis of soil elements. Moreover, a theoretical method to calculate the passive earth pressure in a narrow, cohesionless backfill under RB mode will be proposed that uses the limit equilibrium (LE) method, which is more suitable than the current methods. The parameter analysis results showed that decreasing the retaining wall slope or the interface friction helps to reduce the earth pressure against the retaining wall. In addition, the earth pressure at the bottom of the wall increases significantly.
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Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 21 • Issue 1 • January 2021
Copyright
© 2020 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Jan 24, 2020
Accepted: Aug 12, 2020
Published online: Oct 30, 2020
Published in print: Jan 1, 2021
Discussion open until: Mar 30, 2021
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