Lateral Earth Pressure

Retaining structures such as retaining walls, basement walls, and bulkheads commonly
are encountered in foundation engineering as they support slopes of earth masses.
Proper design and construction of these structures require a thorough knowledge of the
lateral forces that act between the retaining structures and the soil masses being retained.
These lateral forces are caused by lateral earth pressure. The magnitude and distribution
of lateral earth pressure depends on many factors, such as the shear strength parameters
of the soil being retained, the inclination of the surface of the backfill, the height and
inclination of the retaining wall at the wall–backfill interface, the nature of wall movement
under lateral pressure, and the adhesion and friction angle at the wall–backfill interface.
There are three cases:
• At rest
• Active
• Passive
At a certain depth a soil element is subjected to a vertical effective pressure and horizontal
effective pressure. You can define the ratio of horizontal pressure to vertical pressure as
K.
If the wall is static meaning if it does not move to the right or to the left of initial position,
the soil mass is said to be the in state of equilibrium. In that case, it is referred to as at-
rest earth pressure, where K is coefficient of at rest earth pressure.
If the wall rotates sufficiently away from the soil, it is considered as active pressure. In
this case, K is considered as coefficient of active earth pressure.
However, if the wall rotates sufficiently towards the soil, it is considered as passive
pressure. In this case, K is considered as coefficient of passive earth pressure.
Earth Pressure at Rest
For normally consolidated soils, coefficient of at rest pressure can be defined as:
𝐾𝑜 = 1 − 𝑠𝑖𝑛∅
𝐾𝑜 − 𝑐𝑜𝑒𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓 𝑎𝑡 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑡 𝑒𝑎𝑟𝑡ℎ 𝑝𝑟𝑒𝑠𝑠𝑢𝑟𝑒
∅ − 𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑙𝑒 𝑜𝑓 𝑖𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛𝑎𝑙 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑐𝑡𝑖𝑜𝑛
For over-consolidated soils, coefficient of at rest pressure can be defined as:

𝐾𝑜 = (1 − 𝑠𝑖𝑛∅)√𝑂𝐶𝑅
𝑂𝐶𝑅 − 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑐𝑜𝑛𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑑𝑎𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑖𝑜
For plasticity index between 0 to 40:
𝐾𝑜 = 0.4 + 0.007 (𝑃. 𝐼)
𝑃. 𝐼 − 𝑝𝑙𝑎𝑠𝑡𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑦 𝑖𝑛𝑑𝑒𝑥
For soil with plasticity index between 40 to 80:
𝐾𝑜 = 0.64 + 0.001(𝑃. 𝐼)
At rest pressure on walls:

If with surcharge:
 If submerged

Problem 1
Given the figure below, determine the lateral force per unit length, the location of the
resultant, and the moment at the base. Assume that for the sand OCR=1.5

𝐾𝑜 = (1 − 𝑠𝑖𝑛∅)√𝑂𝐶𝑅 = 0.52
 24.49(3)
𝑃1 = = 36.74𝑘𝑁
2
𝑃2 = 24.49(1.5) = 36.74𝑘𝑁
7.32(1.5)
𝑃4 = = 5.49𝑘𝑁
2
14.72(1.5)
𝑃4 = = 11.04𝑘𝑁
2
𝑅 = 𝑃1 + 𝑃2 + 𝑃3 + 𝑃4 = 𝟗𝟎. 𝟎𝟏𝒌𝑵
𝑅𝑦 = 𝑃1 𝑦1 + 𝑃2 𝑦2 + 𝑃3 𝑦3 + 𝑃4 𝑦4
𝑦 𝒗𝒂𝒍𝒖𝒆𝒔 𝒂𝒓𝒆 𝒅𝒊𝒔𝒕𝒂𝒏𝒄𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒂𝒑𝒑𝒍𝒊𝒄𝒂𝒕𝒊𝒐𝒏 𝒑𝒆𝒓 𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅
1.5 1.5 1.5
𝑦𝟏 = 1 + 1.5; 𝑦2 = ; 𝑦3 = ; 𝑦4 =
2 3 3
90.01(𝑦) = 36.74(2.5) + 36.74(0.75) + 5.49(0.5) + 11.04(0.5)
𝒚 = 𝟏. 𝟒𝟐𝒎 𝒇𝒓 . 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒈𝒓𝒐𝒖𝒏𝒅
𝑀 = 90.01(1.42) = 127.8 𝑘𝑁 − 𝑚
Problem 2
A vertical retaining wall 5m high is supporting a horizontal backfill. The water table is
located 2m below the top of the wall. The unit weight of the soil above the water table on
level with the top of the wall is 16kN/cu.m, and an angle of internal friction of 30 degrees.
The saturated unit weight of the soil below the water table is 19kN//cu.m, and an angle of
internal friction of 30 degrees. It carries a horizontal surcharge of 12kpa. Find the total
lateral force, location of the resultant, and the moment due to lateral force.
 𝐾𝑜 = 1 − 𝑠𝑖𝑛30 = 0.5

𝑃1 = 6(5) = 30𝑘𝑁
16(2)
𝑃2 = = 16𝑘𝑁
2
𝑃3 = 16(3) = 48𝑘𝑁
13.785(3)
𝑃4 = = 20.68𝑘𝑁
2
29.43(3)
𝑃5 = = 44.145
2
𝑅 = 30 + 16 + 48 + 20.68 + 44.145 = 𝟏𝟓𝟖. 𝟖𝟐𝟓 𝒌𝑵
𝑅𝑦 = 𝑃1 𝑦1 + 𝑃2 𝑦2 + 𝑃3 𝑦3 + 𝑃4 𝑦4 + 𝑃5 𝑦5
2
𝑅𝑦 = 30(3) + 16 ( + 3) + 48(1.5) + 20.68(1) + 29.73(1)
3
𝒚 = 𝟏. 𝟕𝒎
𝑀 = 158.825(1.7) = 𝟐𝟕𝟎𝒌𝑵 − 𝒎