Study Of Earth Pressure On Retaining Walls On The Basis Of Soil Arching Effect

Traditional methods for calculations of earth pressures on retaining walls provide dependable forces, but these methods do not indicate the reliable location of the load. The Coulomb method utilizes the limit equilibrium method and does not address the distribution of earth pressure, whereas the Rankine method provides linear stress distribution with depth. However, many experimental results show that the distribution of active pressure on the face of a rough wall depends on the mode of wall movement and is non-linear.Translation is the most common displacement mode of rigid retaining wall. Coulomb’s theory and Rankin’s theory of earth pressure both are earth pressures on retaining wall that translates horizontally away from the soil. In this paper, a new formulation for calculating the active and passive earth pressure on a rigid retaining wall that translates horizontally away from the soil was proposed considering the arching effects in the retained soil mass and using differential element method. The primary contents of this thesis are as follows.(1)Based on the analysis of the stress state of the backfill, explained the soil behind the retaining wall in the active and passive state of the principal stress deflection, reflects the wall soil friction on the contact surface of the wall backfill soil stress state.Based on the catenary, arc and parabola of three kinds of soil were analyzed arch shape, and the establishment of the curve equation of the parabolic soil arch.(2)In this paper, the active earth pressure behind the rigid retaining wall under translation mode is calculated. Considering the influence of soil arching effect, it is assumed that the soil arch is parabolic arch, derived the expressions of the active lateral earth pressure coefficient. Combined with horizontal layer analysis method, the present analysis establishes static state equilibrium equation of the soil layer unit, the active earth pressure distribution, and the point of resultant force and its calculation formula of earth pressure are obtained. The proposed method are compared with the existing methods and some experimental data.(3)In this paper, the passive earth pressure behind the rigid retaining wall under the mode of translation is calculated. Considering the influence of the soil arch effect, assumes that the soil arch respectively are parabolic arch and circular arch. And the expression of the passive lateral earth pressure coefficient is derived. Combined with horizontal layer analysis method, the present analysis establishes static state equilibrium equation of the soil layer unit, the passive earth pressure distribution, and the point of resultant force and its calculation formula of earth pressure are obtained.And parameter analysis is carried out on the calculation results, demonstrating the rationality of the solution in this paper.