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Lateral Earth Pressures

Contents
Geotechnical applications
K0, active & passive states
Rankines earth pressure theory

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

Tie rod
Anchor

Sheet pile

Cantilever
retaining wall

Braced excavation

Anchored sheet pile

Lateral Support
We have to estimate the lateral soil pressures acting on
these structures, to be able to design them.

Gravity Retaining
wall

Soil nailing

Reinforced earth wall

Soil Nailing

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

Lateral Support
Crib walls have been used in Queensland.

filled with
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

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,

K0

Poissons
ratio
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Active/Passive Earth Pressures


- in granular soils
Wall moves
away from soil
A

Wall moves
towards soil
B
smooth wall

Lets look at the soil elements A and B during the


wall movement.

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Active Earth Pressure


- in granular soils
v = z
v z
h

Initially, there is no lateral movement.


h = K0 v = K0 z

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

[ h ' ]active K A v '


1 sin
KA
tan2 (45 / 2)
1 sin

Rankines coefficient of
active earth pressure
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Active Earth Pressure


- in granular soils

Failure plane is at
45 + /2 to horizontal

v
h

45 + /2

90+

[h]active

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Active Earth Pressure


- in granular soils
As the wall moves away from the soil,
h decreases till failure occurs.

v z
h

K0 state

Active
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
h

v remains the same, and

h increases till failure occurs.


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

[h]passive

[ h ' ] passive K P v '


1 sin
KP
tan2 (45 / 2)
1 sin

Rankines coefficient of
passive earth pressure
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Passive Earth Pressure


- in granular soils

Failure plane is at
45 - /2 to horizontal

v
h

45 - /2

90+

[h]passive

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Passive Earth Pressure


- in granular soils
As the wall moves towards the soil,
h increases till failure occurs.

v
h

Passive state

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

PA=0.5 KAH2
h

PP=0.5 KPh2

KPh

KAH

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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

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Design of Retaining Wall


- in granular soils

Block no.

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)

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Safety against sliding along the base

Fsliding

PP {Wi }. tan

soil-concrete friction
angle 0.5 0.7

PA

to be greater
than 1.5
2

PA

PA

PP

S
toe

h PP

toe

R
y

PP= 0.5 KPh2

PA= 0.5 KAH2

Safety against overturning about toe

Foverturning

PP h / 3 {Wi xi }
PA H/3

to be greater
than 2.0
2

PA

PP

S
toe

h PP
R

S
toe

R
y

PA

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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