Abstract

Parts of the retaining wall might produce displacement under different load conditions. The moveable wall could impact the adjacent fixed wall, mainly reflecting on the variation of earth pressure and formation of the soil arching effect. This paper conducted the horizontal trap-door test to explore the variation of active earth pressure caused by partial displacement of the retaining wall. Different trap-door width and three displacement modes were addressed as the influence factors. The results indicated that the horizontal soil arching effect was generated after the active displacement of the trap-door and the soil pressure was redistributed. The distribution of lateral soil pressure was approximately an “inverted bell” curve. For trap-door widths of 20 cm, 30 cm, and 40 cm, a secondary soil arching effect appeared in the test. The relationship between lateral earth pressure and displacement was different with the traditional limited theory due to the influence of the soil arching effect. The variation curve of earth pressure corresponding to displacement could be divided into three stages. In addition, the distribution of earth pressure along the trap-door height was non-linear. Trap-door width can significantly influence the maximum earth pressure on the fixed wall and the range where pressure changes. Finally, the effect of load sharing was explored and found to be related with displacement and width of trap-door as well as the displacement mode.

Highlights

  • Retaining wall has been widely used in transportation, water conservancy, and construction projects [1]

  • According to Fang et al [3,4], the displacement pattern of the retaining wall was simplified into three types: translation (T), rotation around the top (RT), and rotation around the base (RB)

  • The partial moveable wall could heavily affect the adjacent stationary wall, but there are still only a few studies concentrating on the influence of the partial displacement of the retaining wall [6]

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Summary

Introduction

Retaining wall has been widely used in transportation, water conservancy, and construction projects [1]. Most of above-mentioned studies barely conducted research about the horizontal soil arching effect of the retaining wall in the case of partial displacement, and did not consider the influence of movement modes such as T, RB, and RT modes. Horizontal trap-door tests were carried out to investigate the influence of the displacement of the partial wall. According to the symmetry criteria and study of Cui [6], the earth pressure on the right side could be recorded symmetrically

Material
Test Procedures
Distribution of Lateral Earth Pressure in T Mode
Distribution of Lateral Earth Pressure in RB Mode
Distribution of Lateral Earth Pressure in RT Mode
Influence of the Trap-Door Width
Distribution of Earth Pressure along the Height
Load Sharing Ratio
Findings
Conclusions
Full Text
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