Lateral earth pressure

About: Lateral earth pressure is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 5334 publications have been published within this topic receiving 62552 citations.

Comparison of the pseudo-static and dynamic behaviour of gravity retaining walls

Abstract: Pseudo-static and dynamic non-linear finite element analyses have been performed to assess the dynamic behaviour of gravity retaining walls subjected to horizontal earthquake loading. In the pseudo-static analysis, the peak ground acceleration is converted into a pseudo-static inertia force and applied as a horizontal incremental gravity load. In the dynamic analysis, an actual measured earthquake acceleration time history has been scaled to provide peak ground acceleration values of 0.1 g and 0.3 g. Good agreement is obtained between the pseudo-static analysis and analytical methods for the calculation of the active coefficient of earth pressure. However, the results from the dynamic analysis require careful interpretation. In the pseudo-static analysis, the increase in the point of application of the resultant active force with the horizontal earthquake coefficient k h from the one-third point to the mid-height of the wall is clearly observed. In the dynamic analysis, the variation in the point of application is shown to be a function of the type of wall deformation. Both finite element analyses indicate the importance of determining the magnitude of the predicted displacements when assessing the behaviour of the wall to seismic loading.

Lateral Earth Pressure Against the Facing of Segmental GRS Walls

Abstract: Current design methods borrowed from the design concepts for externally stabilized retaining walls and adopted the Rankine or Coulomb earth pressure theories for design of segmental Geosynthetic-Reinforced Soil (GRS) walls. The earth pressure is used to determine the minimum reinforcement strength, minimum reinforcement length, and required connection strength between facing blocks. There is a myth that the connection strength of the wall facing needs to be sufficiently high in order to resist the Rankine or Coulomb lateral earth pressure. Such a design procedure has encouraged the use of heavy facing blocks and the use of pins and lips to increase resistance to lateral earth pressure on the wall face. This paper addresses the lateral earth pressure against the facing. Case studies on the subject of facing lateral earth pressure are presented and discussed. The bin pressure concept is introduced and recommended for evaluation of facing connection strength requirements in design.