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By : Engr.

Halina Binti Hamid


Learning Outcome

Upon completion of this topic, students should be able to :

Understand lateral earth pressure


Learn the active and passive pressure for cohesion
and cohesionless soil.
Know the effect of active and passive pressure on
cohesion and cohesionless soil.
Know type of gravity walls
Understand the stability of the retaining wall
Introduction

Retaining walls are structures that support
backfill and allow for a change of grade.
For instance a retaining wall can be used
to retain fill along a slope or it can be used
to support a cut into a slope.
Retaining wall structures can be gravity,
semi-gravity, cantilever, and counterfort
type structure.
Walls might be constructed from materials
such as fieldstone, reinforced concrete,
gabions, reinforced earth, steel and
timber.
To resist the external forces applied to the
wall from earth pressure, surcharge load,
water, earthquake etc.
Categories of Lateral Earth
Pressure

The three categories
are :
At rest earth pressure
Active earth pressure
Passive earth
pressure
Types of earth-retaining structure

The various types of earth-retaining structures fall
into three broad groups :
1. Gravity Walls : these depend largely upon their own
weight for stability, have wide bases and usually a
rigid construction
Masonry walls
Gabion walls
Crib walls
RC walls
Counterfort walls
Gabion wall
Gravity Retaining wall
Example

Crib walls : formed with interlocking pre-cast concrete unit,
stretchers run parallel to the wall face and headers are laid
perpendicular to the wall face, the space formed by the cribs is filled with
filled with free-draining material, such as stone, rubble, soil
cobbles or gravel.
Good drainage & allow plant growth. Interlocking
stretchers
and headers
Types of earth-retaining structure

2. Embedded Walls : these consist of vertical driven or
placed sheets or piles that may be anchored, tied or
propped, or may act as simple cantilevers their own
weight does not feature in stability analyses

Tie rod
Anchor

Sheet pile

Cantilever retaining wall Anchored sheet pile


Example :

Sheet Pile

Sheet pile wall

Sheet piles
marked for
driving
Types of earth-retaining structure

3. Reinforced and Anchored earth : the wall material
may be the in situ rock or soil into which
reinforcement is inserted, or reinforcement may be
laid between rolled layers as the fill soil is placed and
compacted.
Reinforced earth walls
Soil nailing
Ground anchors

Soil nailing

Reinforced earth wall


Example :

Soil Nailing : an in situ reinforcement method in which steel
bars or angles or other metallic elements are driven in or
grouted in drilled hole, they are typically 3 5 m long and at
spacing of 0.5 2 m.
Example :

Reinforced earth walls are increasingly becoming
popular. geosynthetics
Consist of frictional backfill laid and rolled in layers, between which
is placed either reinforcing strips or geotextile mesh
Definition of Key Terms

Active earth pressure coefficient (Ka):
It is the of horizontal and vertical principal effective stresses
when a retaining wall moves away (by a small amount)
from the retained soil.
Passive earth pressure coefficient (Kp):
It is the ratio of horizontal and vertical principal effective
stresses when a retaining wall is forced against a soil mass.
Coefficient of earth pressure at rest (K0):
It is the ratio of horizontal and vertical principal effective
stresses when the retaining wall does not move at all, i.e. it
is at rest.
Earth Pressure at Rest

In a homogeneous natural soil deposit,
v GL
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.
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
Active/Passive Earth Pressures
- in granular soils

Wall moves away
from soil

Wall moves A
towards soil

smooth wall

Lets look at the soil elements A and B during


the wall movement.
Active Earth Pressure
- in granular soils


v = z
v z
Initially, there is no lateral movement.
h
A
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
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
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 tan2 (45 / 2)
1 sin
Active Earth Pressure
- in granular soils


Failure plane is at
45 + /2 to horizontal v
h
45 +
A
/2

90+

[h]active v
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 state
A

wall movement
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.
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
Passive Earth Pressure
- in granular soils


v [h]passive

[ h ' ] passive K P v '


Rankines coefficient of
1 sin passive earth pressure
KP tan2 (45 / 2)
1 sin
Passive Earth Pressure
- in granular soils


Failure plane is at
45 - /2 to horizontal v
45 - /2 h
A

90+

[h]passive
v
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
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.
Earth Pressure Distribution
- in granular soils

[h]activ
e
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

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
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
Gravity Retaining Walls

cement mortar
plain concrete or
stone masonry
cobbles

They rely on their self weight


to support the backfill
Cantilever Retaining Walls

Reinforced;
smaller section
than gravity
walls

They act like vertical cantilever,


fixed to the ground

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