A Numerical Study of the Active Earth Pressure on a Rigid Retaining Wall for Various Modes of Movements

Abstract

The magnitude and the application point of the resultant active earth pressure are two key problems in the design of a variety of civil engineering structures. Experimental results indicate that these parameters are affected by the wall movements. In this paper, series of two- dimensional finite difference analyses have been carried out using the code FLAC (Fast Lagrangian Analyses of Continua) to study the active earth pressure distribution behind a retaining wall under horizontal translation, rotation about the bottom, and rotation about the top modes of wall displacements. The computation results show remarkable similarity to experimental results available in the literature indicating that the active earth pressure distribution is nonlinear due to the arching effect. It is found that, for a wall under translational and base rotation modes, the active earth pressure is substantially hydrostatic except at the wall base where curvature was observed. These two wall modes are in good agreement with classical solutions. However, the earth pressure distribution due to rotation about the top is found far from the hydrostatic distribution and is highly affected by the arching effect.