Lateral Earth Pressure PDF
Lateral Earth Pressure PDF
Lateral Earth Pressure PDF
4. Introduction
A retaining wall is a structure that is used to support a vertical or near vertical
slopes of soil. The resulting horizontal stress from the soil on the wall is called lateral
earth pressure. To determine the magnitude of the lateral earth pressure, a
geotechnical engineer must know the basic soil parameters – that is, unit weight ,
angle of friction , and cohesion c – for the soil retained behind the wall. In the
evaluation of the magnitude of this lateral earth pressure, it is assumed that the soil
behind the wall (called backfill soil) is on the verge of failure and obeys some failure
criterion, for example, the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion.
When you complete this chapter, you should be able to:
Understand lateral earth pressure.
Determine lateral earth pressure.
4.1 Definitions of Key Terms
At rest earth pressure coefficient (k0) is the ratio between the lateral and vertical
principal effective stresses when an earth retaining structure is at rest (or is not
allowed to move at all).
Active earth pressure coefficient (ka) is the ratio between the lateral and vertical
principal effective stresses when an earth retaining structure moves away from the
retained soil.
Passive earth pressure coefficient (kp) is the ratio between the lateral and vertical
principal effective stresses when an earth retaining structure is forced to move against
a soil mass.
4.2 Lateral Earth Pressure at Rest
Consider a vertical wall of height H, as shown in Fig. 4.1, retaining a soil having
a unit weight of . At any depth z below the ground surface the vertical effective stress
is:
z' z u (4.1)
If the wall is not allowed to move at all either away from the soil mass or to the soil
mass (or in other words if there is no lateral expansion or compression in the backfill
soil), the lateral pressure is called at rest earth pressure. In this case, the lateral
earth pressure x' at a depth z is:
Where, k0 is coefficient of at rest earth pressure. You must remember that k0 applies
only to effective stresses not to total stresses. The magnitude of k0 depends on the
type of the soil, its degree of compaction, plasticity characteristics, and degree of
For overconsolidated soils the value of k0 is higher than that given by Eq. (4.3). Alpan
(1967) suggested the following relationship:
k 0,OCR
(OCR ) n (4.4)
k 0,NC
Where, k0,OCR and k0.NC are the coefficient of at rest earth pressure for
overconsolidated and normally consolidated soil, respectively, OCR is the
overconsolidation ratio, and n is a number depending on the plasticity characteristics
of the soil. Based on statistical analysis of several laboratory test results, Mayne &
Kulhawy (1982) proposed that, n sin ' , thus:
EXAMPLE 4.1
For the retaining wall shown in Fig. E4.1, determine the total resultant lateral earth
force at rest per unit length of the wall. Also determine the location of the resultant
earth pressure. Assume that the soil is a normally consolidated soil.
FIGURE E4.1
Figure 4.2: a) A smooth retaining wall, b) Mohr’s circles for at rest, active and passive states.
'
a 450 (4.6)
2
to the horizontal, as illustrated in Fig. 4.3 b and proved in Chapter 1 (Eqn. 1.12). For
'
p 450 (4.7)
2
to the horizontal as illustrated in Fig. 4.3 a.
For the active state, the lateral effective stress 3' is equal to a' as shown in
Fig. 4.2 b (Mohr’s circle ②). Substituting '
a into Eqn. (1.1.7) in Chapter 1, the
Rankine active lateral effective stress is:
Where,
For the passive state, the lateral effective stress 'p becomes the major
principal stress 1' and the vertical effective stress z' becomes the minor principal
stress '
3 as shown in Fig. 4.2 b (Mohr’s circle ③). Therefore, using Eqn. (1.16) in
Chapter 1, the Rankine passive lateral effective stress is:
Where,
1
kp (4.12)
ka
Equations (7.8) and (7.10) indicate that, for a homogeneous soil layer, the lateral
earth pressure varies linearly with depth z.
Figure 4.5 shows the active and passive lateral stress distribution for a smooth
wall retaining a c- ' soil. In the active state case, the soil at depth z = 0 is subjected
to a tensile stress as shown in Fig. 4.5 b. Soils do not have tensile strength, as a result
tension cracks will occur down to a depth z0, where the tensile stress becomes zero.
At depth z0 (known as depth of tension crack), the stress is zero, thus,
2c'
0 ' z 0 k a 2c' k a z 0 (4.13)
' ka
The lateral earth force is the area of the lateral stress diagram (Fig. 4.5), which
for the Rankine active state is:
H
Pa ( ' zk a 2c' k a ) 12 k a ' H 2 2c' H k a (4.14)
0
H
Pp ( ' zk p 2c' k p ) 12 k p ' H 2 2c' H k p (4.15)
0
Pa 12 k a ' H 2 (4.16)
and
Pp 12 k p ' H 2 (4.17)
The corresponding active and passive lateral forces are also given by:
Pa 12 k a ' H 2 k a q s H (4.20)
and
Pp 12 k p ' H 2 k p q s H (4.21)
Figure 4.6: Variation of active and passive lateral earth pressures, hydrostatic
pressure, and a uniform surface stress with depth. (Note: backfill soil is granular).
For a c’, ' backfill, Eqns. (4.18) and (4.19) will become:
The corresponding active and passive lateral forces are also given by:
and
Note that for a purely cohesive saturated clay with undrained shear strength
parameter of cu and ' u=0, ka = kp = 1.
If groundwater is present, you need to add the hydrostatic pressure (pore water
pressure) to the lateral earth pressure. For example, if the groundwater level is at a
distance hw from the base of the wall as shown in Fig. 3.6, the hydrostatic pressure is,
u w hw (4.26)
Pw 12 w hw2 (4.27)
1. The lateral earth pressures on retaining walls are related directly to the vertical
effective stress through two coefficients ka and kp.
2. Substantially more movement is required to mobilize the full passive earth
pressure than the full active earth pressure.
3. A family of slip planes occurs in the Rankine active and passive states. In the
active state, the slip planes are oriented at (450 + ' / 2 ) to the horizontal, and
while for the passive case they are oriented at (450 - ' / 2 ) to the horizontal.
4. The lateral earth pressure coefficients, developed so far are only valid for a smooth,
vertical wall supporting a soil mass with a horizontal surface; and must be applied
to effective stresses only.
EXAMPLE 4.3
For the frictionless wall retaining a stratified soil and shown in Fig. E4.2, determine:
(a) The active lateral earth pressure distribution with depth.
(b) The passive lateral earth pressure distribution with depth.
(c) The magnitude and location of the active and passive forces.
(d) The resultant force.
(e) The ratio of passive moment to active moment.
4.8 Rankine Active & Passive Earth Pressure for Inclined Granular
Backfill
at an angle ( ' ) with respect to the horizontal (Figure 3.7), the Rankine active
earth pressure coefficient ka is expressed in the form:
Pa 12 k a ' H 2 (4.30)
Note that, the direction of the lateral force Pa is inclined at an angle to the
horizontal and intersects the wall at a distance of H/3 from the base of the wall.
The Rankine passive pressure coefficient kp for a wall with a granular sloping
backfill is:
The Rankine passive stress and passive lateral force are calculated using equations
similar to Eqns. (4.24 and 4.25) in which ka is replaced by kp. As in the case of the
active force, the resultant force Pp is inclined at angle with the horizontal and
intersects the wall at a distance of H/3 from the bottom of the wall.
EXAMPLE 4.4
A retaining wall with a vertical back is 5 m high and retains a sloping soil with =200.
Determine the magnitude of the active pressure.
Figure 4.9: Retaining wall with slopping back, wall friction, and sloping soil surface
for use with Coulomb’s method for active state.
Pa 12 k ac ' H 2 (4.32)
Note that the line of action of the active force Pa will act at a distance H/3 above
the base of the wall and will be inclined at angle to the normal drawn to the back
of the wall. In the actual design of retaining walls, the value of the wall friction
angle, is assumed to be between '
2 & 2
3 ' . Retaining walls are generally
constructed of masonry or mass concrete. Table 4.1 shows the general range of the
values of for various backfill materials.
Table 4.1: General range of wall friction angle for masonry or mass concrete walls
Backfill material Range of in degrees
Gravel 27 – 30
Course sand 20 – 28
Fine sand 15 – 25
Stiff clay 15 – 20
Silty clay 12 – 16
Pp 12 k pc ' H 2 (4.34)
sin 2 ( ' )
k pc 2
(4.35)
sin( ' ) sin( ' )
sin 2 sin( ) 1
sin( ) sin( )
EXAMPLE 4.5
Using the Coulomb equation, what is the total active force per meter of wall for the
soil-wall system shown in Figure E4.4?
And where does Pa act?
Figure: E4.4