LECTURE 4

LATERAL EARTH PRESSURE

&
EARTH RETAINING
STRUCTURES

• Lateral earth pressure is the pressure

that soil exerts in the horizontal plane.
– i.e. acts horizontally compared to overburden
pressure which acts vertically
• The common applications of lateral earth
pressure theory are for the design of
ground engineering structures such as
earth retaining walls, basements and
tunnels
• Also useful in determining the friction on
the sides of deep foundations.
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 Retaining Wall Structures
• These are structures
that support backfill
and may also allow
for a change of grade.
• For instance a
retaining
wall/structure 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, or counterfort type
structures.
• Walls might be constructed from materials
such as reinforced concrete,
stone/gabions, reinforced earth, steel and
timber.
• These walls must be designed to resist the
external forces applied to the wall from
earth pressure and any additional load
from surcharges, water, earthquake etc.

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Types of Retaining Wall Structures
1. Gravity walls
• Mass construction gravity walls (mass concrete
blocks, bricks, stone)

2. Reinforced concrete walls

• Three main types
– Cantilever - most common
– Counterfort / buttress
– Gravity
• Economic up to 5 - 6m. retained height.

3. Reinforced Brickwork / stone

• Alternative where required aesthetically.
• Up to 2.5 - 3.0m retained height.
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 Typical Retaining Wall Types

4. Gabions
• Built of cuboid metal cages or baskets made from a
square grid of steel fabric – usually 2m long and 1m
x 1m in x-section; filled with stone particles
• Stone-filled baskets secured together with steel wire
• Simple but could be unattractive in appearance

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5. Crib Wall
– Can be made of
Interlocking timber or
concrete sections
– Act like mass construction
gravity wall
– Usually tilted so that its
face has a batter of about
1:6
– Wall suitable for heights of
up to 6.5m
– Should not be subjected to
surcharge loadings
– Erected quickly

6. Sand bags
• Typically cement-
bound sand (‘lean
mix’) in hessian
sacks.
• May be reinforced
with flat stainless
steel strips.
• Face slope 70º – 80º
• Preferable base width
of 0.8 H

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 7. Steel Sheet Piling
• Made up from a series of interlocking piles
individually driven into the foundation soil.
• Most modern piles are made of steel. Earlier
walls also made from timber or pre-cast concrete
sections.
Two main types of sheet pile walls
• Cantilever wall
– Held in the ground by the active passive pressures
that act on its lower part
• Anchored wall
– Fixed at its base like the cantilever, but is also
supported by a row or two of ties or struts placed near
its top

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Steel Sheet Piling

• Relatively
economic - mainly
used for temporary
works.
• Avoid dense and
medium/dense
granular strata.

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 8. Contiguous Piles
• Constructed from a single or double row of bored piles
placed besides each other.
• Alternative piles are installed first before intermediate ones
• Expensive.
• Only economic for long runs, over 6m. retained height
and/or if piling is already going on on site.
• Capping beam is generally required

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9. Secant Walls
• The technique for constructing a secant wall is similar to
that of the contiguous wall.
• However, for the secant wall, the alternate piles are
drilled at a much closer spacing. Then while the concrete
is still fresh (‘green’), the intermediate holes are drilled
along a slightly offset line. These holes that cut into the
first piles are then concreted, thereby creating a water-
tight continuous wall

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10. Diaphragm Walls
• May be classed as either
reinforced concrete walls,
sheet pile walls or bentonite
slurry wall
• Consists of a vertical
reinforced concrete slab fixed
in position in the same manner
as a sheet pile, the lower
section being held in place by
active & passive soil pressure
• Very expensive, 'bentonite'
operation.
• Only economic for long runs,
above 6m. retained height.

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EFFECT OF WALL MOVEMENT ON

EARTH PRESSURE
• There are three categories of lateral earth
pressure and each depends upon the
movement experienced by the vertical wall
on which the pressure is acting
– Wall here means the vertical plane on which
the earth pressure is acting.
• The three categories are:
– At rest earth pressure
– Active earth pressure
– Passive earth pressure
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• The ‘at rest pressure’ develops when the
wall experiences no lateral movement.
This typically occurs when the wall is
restrained from any movement
• The ‘active pressure’ develops when the
wall has tendency to ‘move outward’ as in
being pushed away from the retained soil
• The ‘passive pressure’ develops if the
wall tends to move ‘into the soil’; the soil
mass being compressed
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 Calculating Lateral Earth Pressure

• Coefficients Lateral earth pressure is

related to the vertical earth pressure by
the following coefficients:
• At Rest Earth Pressure Coefficient (Ko)
• Active Earth Pressure Coefficient (Ka)
• Passive Earth Pressure Coefficient (Kp)

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Earth Pressure at Rest

• For an earth retaining wall in equilibrium:

– The weight (overburden) above any depth z is γz,
– Earth pressure at rest (Geo-static case), K = K0
• Then, the horizontal earth pressure at rest =
k0γz 20

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• ASSUMPTIONS
– Ground surface horizontal
– Homogenous soil conditions

• μ – Poisson’s ratio of soil

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• In practice, many retaining walls move forwards

slightly (i.e. away from the retained soil). This
reduces the pressure on the wall.
• The minimum value of this pressure at the point
of failure of the soil is known as the active
pressure

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 Mohr circle presentations

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Rankine Failure Criterion – Failure Planes

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 Active Pressure of Cohesionless
Soil
Horizontal soil surface –
Rankine’s Theory Horizontal Surface

– Vertical Pressure = γz
γz
– Horizontal pressure = pa z

(active pressure at failure) pa

pa

γz

Retaining Wall

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ACTIVE PRESSURE (cohesionless soil)

– Rankine’s Theory

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 Active Pressure - Rankine
• Active thrust zone assumed to be triangular
• Local failure surface known (θ = 450 + Φ/2)

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Rankine’s Theory, Inclined Granular

(cohesionless) Backfill

Pressure on the
wall is assumed
to act parallel to
the surface of
the soil

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 Coulomb’s Wedge Failure Theory

• α – angle of
back of wall to
the horizontal
• δ angle of wall
friction
• i angle of
inclination of
surface of
retained soil to
the horizontal
• β angle of
failure plane
• Φ angle of
friction of
retained soil

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Surcharges on the Granular Backfill

Uniform Surcharge Load

• Active pressure is applied directly to uniform
surcharge q.

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 Surcharges on the Backfill – Alternative
Analysis
• Alternatively, the load is considered as equivalent
to an extra height (he) of soil given by:
q Sin
he 
 sin   

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q Sin
he 
 sin   
• q - intensity of uniform load
• γ - unit weight of the soil
• α - angle of inclination
• β - angle of inclination of retained material
(zero when surface of fill is horizontal)
• This surcharge may be regarded as an extra
height of soil, he, placed on top of the wall

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 Active Lateral Earth Pressure – Cohesive
soils
• The active pressure, pa
at depth h in a
horizontal soil
exhibiting both frictional
& cohesive strength
and having horizontal
upper surface is given
by the expression
 
p a  K a h  2c tan  45  
 2

OR p a  K a h  2c K a
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Effect of Tension Cracks

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 Tension Cracks
• Up to some depth z0, this zone is under tension
i.e. soil undergoing negative stress
• Soil cannot withstand tensile stress, therefore
cracks may form up to depth z0
• The value of z0 increases with increase in
cohesion, c and vice versa
• If there is a uniform surcharge acting on the
surface of the retained soil with equivalent
height he, the tension zone is
z = z0 – he
• If he>zo, then there will be no tensile zone

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PASSIVE PRESSURE –
Cohesionless Soils (Rankine)

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Passive Pressure (cohesionless soil) –
horizontal surface

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Rankine’s theory – retained soil sloping

at angle β, c = 0 (cohesionless)
• For this case:

cos   cos2   cos2 

K p  cos 
cos   cos2   cos2 

• Total PASSIVE RESISTANCE on

vertical wall with height H
Pp = ½KpγH2cosβ

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Coulomb’s Wedge Theory – Sloping
surface

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Passive Pressure – Cohesive Soils

• For the case of frictional cohesive (i.e. ø,

c) soil, passive pressure according to
Rankine’s theory:

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• If a uniformly surcharge
pressure of intensity q per
unit area acts over the
surface of the backfill, the
vertical stress σv is
increased resulting in an
addition passive pressure
Kpq.
• The corresponding force per
meter run on a vertical wall
of height h is Kpqh, acting at
mid-height.

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