Calculation method for static and seismic active earth pressure on counterweight retaining walls under translation based on two critical slip surfaces

Abstract

The counterweight retaining wall with polyline wall back is a kind of gravity walls, which can be alternatively used in high embankments. To completely analyze active earth pressure on the polyline back under the wall translation mode, a comprehensive method is proposed based on two planar slip surfaces in the retained soil, an inclined slice method within the frame of limit equilibrium, and the pseudo-static approach. Meanwhile, the two critical slip surfaces include the global and local ones in the soils behind the whole wall and only the upper wall, respectively; and mobilized shear strength coefficients on interslice surfaces are introduced to fully consider the interslice shear forces. Some examples show that the proposed resultant forces on the whole wall are close to the experimental and numerical results generally within 10% error. The dip angle of backfill surface has a significant effect on the two slip surfaces, and the inclination of the lower back mostly influences the global slip surface. The unloading effect of the platform on the lower earth pressure becomes obvious as the upper wall lengthens under a constant height of the whole wall. The magnitude and profile of the seismic earth pressure on the polyline back are greatly influenced by the seismic coefficients.