Calculations of

retaining wall pressures

by K. COLE', BSc(Hons), MSc, FICE

RECENTLY the New Civil Engineer publish

Symbols Meaning Usual units Symbol in
ed (Speaker's Corner, Oct. 21, 1982, page BS 5975
24) an extract from a rather long and: de- Mg/ma
tailed letter from me, drawing attention to
density Y
two serious problems which beset geo- unit weight kN/ms p
technics practitioners in this country, unit weight of water (Usually taken as Not given
namely: 10 kN/m') kN/m'N/ms

(i) the lack of up-to-date code guidance surcharge load (uniform pressure, to Not given
on earth pressure computation and infinite distance at side of wall loaded)
retaining wall des'ign, and horz depth ITI
(ii) the fragmentary nature of UK codes
of practice on geotechnics. shear strength in undrained shear kN/ma
effective cohesion in drained shear kN/ms
The fragmentary nature of UK codes effective angle of shearing resistance
has two consequences, that earth- in drained shear
works, foundations and retaining struc- n- (o-, (rI,) total pressure at any point in the soil kN/ms
tures are treated in different manners mass e.g. o-„= yh where suffix v denotes
instead of being part of one unified vertical pressure, and suffix h denotes
philosophy, and the up-dating of horizontal pressure
codes out-of-step with each other ex- water pressure at any point (in static kN/ma
acerbates the problem, as at each re- conditions u = y z, where z is the
vision they become more established
depth from the ground water surface
in their compartmentalisation.
immediately above, otherwise seepage
pressures must be used)
A further consequence of not having a
single geotechnics "core" code with a
'o-„', o-„') effective pressure at any point in the kN/ms
urfified philosophy applicable to all geo- soil mass, where o.' o. —u
technical design, is that sections badly K, K coefficients for horizonta'I active earth K, Kac
out-of-step (such as the now 30-years-old pressure, depending upon the values of
CP2, Earth Retaining Structures) tend to be ', ll (wall friction) and c,„(effective
4
incorporated with revisions into other wall cohesion)
codes as these are revised or newly writ- K,K, coefficients for horizontal passive earth K,, Kac
ten. The problem exemplified in the writing pressure, depending upon the values of
of a retaining wall design section for the y', fi (wall friction) and c~ (effective
Code of Practice on Falsework BS 5975: wall cohesion)
1982', is that such revisions are likely to the active pressure at any point in the kN/ma pa
proliferate errors and unsound design soil mass acting in a horizontal direction
philosophy.
I am pleased to have been invited by pp the passive (resistance) pressure at kN/ma Pa
any point in the soil mass acting in a
horizontal direction.
vProject Director, Ove Arup a Partners

Active pressure side Passive resistance side Ground Engineering to provide the "cor-
rection note" which the New Civil Engin-
Properties Thickness eer omitted for reasons of space. In the
of strata of strata Level ground "correction" sent to the NCE (with a copy
to BSI) an attempt was made to keep to
I
P
<DFAEMNYXMZA II the same symbols used in BS 5975, to
c
h avoid confusion to those wishing to amend
their copies. The opportunity has been
taken here to use the symbols, units and
c, definitions recommended by the ISSMFE',
and indicate the equivalent symbols used
I
—++ in BS 5975.
The following formulae apply only to
level ground surfaces on the active and
73 Cs ps hs u P passive sides of a retaining wa/I with ver-
tical faces; any surcharge present is con-
I —+- sidered as a uniformly distributed load ex-
tending to infinite distances on the side of
cs 4's hs the wall loaded by it. These conditions are
illustrated in the diagram on the left. The val-
ues of K, and K„, and K„and K, should
be taken from the Code of Practice on
Earth Retaining Structures (currently CP2:
N.B. 1951)', although the formulae for K, and
(i) For static groundwater conditions (iv) calculating p and p use the val- K in Section 28.5 of BS 5975 may also
only: —
u = y z (z P h)
In
ues of c'nd sf't
the depth under be used as they ignore wall friction and
(ii) If groundwater is fiowing then u will consideration, vis. for p use c', and are therefore conservative. If wall friction
not be equal to the static ground- 'P s is present the active and passive pres-
water pressure. sures do not act horizontally, see CP2 or
(iii) At the depths h at which pe and pp specialist literature such as Navfac DM74.
are being calculated, yh = (yt ht +
y, ha + ........ )
ln certain circumstances c„may be
substituted for c'nd y'see text)
If the ground surfaces adjacent to t'e
(concluded on page 41 J
March, 1983 35
linder and the assembly returned to the
scabbard whilst drilling continues to the Calculations of ~l ~ I
(6~3 r~
next test depth.
The system uses the latest wireline
retaining wall k~i L~
techniques with electrical cones developed pressures
both in Holland and by Wimpey Labora- (continued from page 35)

I
tories Ltd. The cones can be calibrated
(Fig. 7) against a standard load cell, on wall are not level, the faces of the wall
board, in a test frame, the cone load cell in contact with the soil not vertical, or the P~~ I~1 [g
being set to give a resistance of 500kg/
cma at a point load of 5tonnes, and the
surcharge load not uniformly distributed
to infinity on the side of the wall loaded, E~iPi
friction sleeve to a resistance of 7.5kg/cma then recourse to specialist ljterature4 is
at a loading of 1.125 tonnes. necessary.
During testing data are automatically re-
corded graphically (Fig. 8) on a two-pen (i) For the general case of soils whose
Combined bar cutter
chart recorder and in digital form on a
data logger with a printer output, which
behaviour may be described by an angle and bender
of shearing resistance 1k', and an effective AVAILABLE FROM P. F. La Roche 8t Co.
also records the strain gauge excitation c', 'ohesion

voltages. Continuous records of both cone Ltd., 42 Station Lane, Hornchurch, Essex
RM12 6NB, is a combined rebar cutting
tip and sleeve resistances are provided Active horizontal pressure at depth h and bending machine, intended for the
which enable end-bearing and skin friction
values to be evaluated for foundation de-
sign.
pa = [Ka (yh + q —u) — c',] + u
hire industry and the smaller contractor. It
weighs only 142kg and measures 700 x
A typical plot of the cone and local
510 x 720mm, w'.thout a stand, and it
The term in [ ] is ignored if negative
friction resistances obtained during tests leaving only the water pressure u.
carried out in part of a borehole are shown
in Fig. 10 whilst in Fig. 11 a condensed plot K, and K,
are obtained from CP2, or
is shown for the complete borehole to- when tt = 0 and c = 0 may be deter-
gether with the soil descriptions based mined from the formulae
both on a visual examjstatseal of the soil
samples taken from the borehole, and from 1 —sin Q
the ratio (R,) of frictional resistance (f„) Ka Kar. = 2 +Ka
to cone resistance (q,) based on work by 1 + sin((r'nd
Begemann'nd Schmertmann'.
To date, plotting of the 'condensed log'nd
Passive horizontal pressure at depth h
calculation of the ratio (R,) has been
carried out by hand. However, in order to p = [K (yh + q —u) + c'K„,) + u]
facilitate rapid assessment of the CPT
results on board ship a computer-based K„and K r are obtained from CP2, or
data acquisition and processing system is
being installed.
when b = 0 and c„=
0 may be deter-
mined from the formulae
The data system includes a small digital
computer, disc and cassette tape data 1 + sin '
y
storage, a printer and a plotter. Prior to
each test the computer's VDU shows a
= andK„, =2 /K
blank data sheet format which the soils
1-sin
La Roche model LR 925 BC combined rebar
y'he

engineer completes by entering relevant

above formulae are relevant also to
data of location, test number, water depth cutting and bending machine
cohesionless soils, the terms involving
and hole depth, etc. During the test the
omitted. c'eing

electrical signals from the cone and fric-
tion sleeve strain gauges are recorded
on both disc and tape. On completion of
the test (or more usually after completion
of the complete borehole) the plotter
draws out the cone, friction sleeve and
friction ratio values against depth to the
desired scales, As an insurance against
possible faj'lure of the system, the strain
gauge signals are also fed to a two-chan-
nel chart recorder for immediate plotting
and all data fed into the computer for im-
mediate production of a hard copy by the
printer.
A disadvantage of the earlier CPT equip
ment was the inability to allow testing
of the soils for a few metres immediately
below sea bed level. This was due to the
need to obtain a certain minimum pene-
tration of the drill rod into the sea bed to
obtain lateral stability for the cone. The
use of a 5000kg dead weight frame placed
directly on the sea bed overcomes this
disadvantage; four hydraulic rams on the
frame act on the drill pipe, which passes
directly through the frame, and provides
reaction for the cone thus allowing testing
from immediately below sea bed level.
References
1. Begemann, ff. K, S. (1965): "The friction jacket
cone as an aid in determining the soil profile".
Proc. 6th Int. Conf. SM at FE, Montreal
2. Sanglerar, G. (1972 j. "The oenetrometer
soil exploration". Elsevier 1972. References
Schmertmann's
J. H
work carried out in Florida
1969, on pp. 207-211.
requires a 110 volt, 50Hz single phase sup-
ply of electricity.
(ii) For the special case of soils exhibiting Model LR 925 BC has a maximum capa-
a nearly constant value of shear strength city of 25mm dia. mild steel or 20mm HT
(ca) over a wide range of confining pres- steel bar size for both bending and cutting.
sures when laboratory tested in undrained Bending angle is adjustable between 0 and
shear, and for which the duration of active 180 deg, and a 180 deg bend takes only
pressure and passive resistance is suffj- 4 secs. Cutting capacity is 30 tonnes, the
c'.ently short that undrained conditions in cutting operation taking 3-5 sec, depend-
the field may be relied upon, the following ing on bar diameter. Bending radius for
formulae may be used: 10mm dia. bars ranges between 82R and
18R while for 25mm bars it is 61R to 40R.
Active horizontal pressure at depth h
p,= [(yh+ q —u) —2ca] +u Rapid CPTs for
The term in [ ] is ignored if negative Glasgow Underground
leaving only the water pressure u. COMPREHENSIVE site investigation at the
Glasgow Underground, Broomloan Depot,
Passive horizontal pressure at depth h Govan, has been carried out by Fugro
Scotland Ltd. Using their independent cone
p„= [ (yh + q —u) + 2 ca] + u penetrometer rig mounted on a flat-bed
"bogie", Fugro carried out a series of 28
cone penetration tests (CPTs) from the
References rail sidings within the Underground car
1. Code of Practice for Falsework, BS 5975: 1982 sheds (see Ground Engineering, May 1982,
BS I.
2. Proceedings 9th Int. Conf. SM st FE List of
p. 29). CPTs were taken generally to 10m
Symbols, Units and Definitions recommended depth and in certain cases to within 1m
by the ISSMFE Vol. 3 pp. 157-169, Tokyo 1977. of the sides of the Underground tunnels.
3. Code of Practice for Earth Retaining Structures, The soils encountered were predominantly
CP2 (1951) Inst Struct, Engs.
sands with a fairly high water table.
4. Navfac DM7, Naval Facilities Engineering Com- It was necessary to carry out the in-
mand Publication transmittal. Design Manual
Soil Mechanics, Foundations and Earth Struc- vestigation as quickly as possible to mini-
and tures USA Dept. of Navy. [Note that mise interference with normal depot func-
xnb I err
and some earth pressure terms
tions. The CPT method of determining the
in do not include the water pressure e.g. In Figs.
10.1 snd 10.2I. in-situ density of granular soils below the

March, 1983 41