Elly Ajigoh MSc.Eng Dept. of civil Eng.

TUK

Topic 1
Retaining Walls

In civil engineering works It is often necessary to retain masses of soil during construction in
places such as;

 Retaining unstable soil next to a road or railway lines

 Raising a section of the ground with minimum land take
 Creation of underground space or temporary e.g
 Creating an excavation to install or repair of services, among others

Retaining walls are often found in places where extra support is needed to prevent the earth
from moving downhill with erosion. The most basic function of a retaining wall is to resist
gravitational forces and lateral forces that cause soil downhill movement hence retaining walls
are structures designed to retain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to

Earth Pressure Theory

Earth pressure theories were developed by

1. C A Coulomb 1776
2. W J Rankin 1857

These theories were developed to estimate the magnitude of;

1) Active earth pressure

2) Passive earth pressure

When a wall with a vertical face retains cohesion less soil and, if the wall does not move even
with the fill material on, then the pressure experienced or exerted on the wall is called at rest
pressure

If the wall rotates about its vertical axis at the base and slightly moves from the fill material ,
the pressure exerted on the wall is called active earth pressure as the weight of the back fill is
responsible for the movement ,for a smooth face wall the pressure acts normal to face of the
wall. If the wall has a rough face, then it makes an angle  with the normal on the wall and the
angle  is called angle of wall friction
If the wall rotates about it vertical axis and moves towards the back fill , then the pressure
exerted on the wall is called passive earth pressure ,it is passive because the weight of the
backfill opposes the move of the wall ,it also makes an angle  with normal for rough faced
wall

Coulomb Theory

Coulomb made the following assumptions in developing his theory

1) That the soil is isotropic and homogeneous

2) The rapture surface is a plane surface
3) The failure wedge of soil is a rigid body
4) The pressure surface is a plane surface
5) That there is wall friction on the pressure surface
6) That failure is two dimensional
7) That the soil is cohesion less

Rankin Theory

Rankin made the following assumptions for his theory

1) That there is no friction between wall and soil

2) Lateral pressure is limited to vertical walls
3) That failure in the back fill occurs as a sliding wedge a long an assumed failure plane
4) Lateral pressure varies linearly with depth and the resultant pressure is located one-third
of the height of wall above the base
5) The resultant force is parallel to the backfill surface

When soil is considered as cohesion less it means that parameter C=0 and the friction between
wall and soil is neglected such that the coefficient of angle of internal friction kA=
1  sin  1  sin 
and the active earth pressure equals  ha   z at depth z
1  sin  1  sin 

Which is Rankin active pressure for cohesion less soil on a vertical wall.

On working out the earth thrust on the wall , the analysis it is assumes that the wall is free to
move in such a way that the soil reaches its state of active plastic equilibrium and in order to
avoid failure the wall must be capable of withstanding the thrust which the soil is exerting on
1 1  sin 
it. Then the total thrust (force) equals PA = z 2 ,where
2 1  sin 

kA is the angle of internal resistance of back fill material

z distance to point where pressure is computed for

 is the unit weight of retained material

 1  sin  1
For the computation of passive earth pressure Kp= = and the total thrust per
1  sin  kA
1 1  sin 
metre run of the wall equals Pp = z 2
2 1  sin 

Where

kP is the angle of internal resistance of retained material

z distance to point where pressure is computed for

 is the unit weight of retained material

The pressure at rest condition is computed as equal to ko =1-sin  where Po = Ko z =Ko z

Where

Ko is the coefficient of internal resistance of retained material

z distance to point where pressure is computed for

 is the unit weight of retained material

Effects of Surcharge Load on Retaining Wall

The presence of a surcharge loads behind a retaining wall in the inform of load q per unit area
or per metre run on the surface has an effect on the lateral pressure on the wall. The effect of
the surcharge load is to introduce a constant pressure that remains constant throughout the
q
depth/height of the wall. The lateral pressure due to surcharge is computed as paq =
N
where q is the unit rate of surcharge load

1
, and where  kA .
N

qH
The total active pressure due to surcharge load is Pa q =
N

The total passive pressure due to surcharge load = Ppq  qHN

Where

H= is the depth to which pressure is computed

 = is the angle of shearing resistance

1
 kA , and
N
kP = N

Effects of Water Table on Retaining Wall

If the backfill material behind a wall is saturated or partially saturated due to presence of water,
then the computation for the lateral earth pressure takes in to account the effect of water on the
unit weight of the soil in both the active earth pressure and passive earth pressure computation
ie the submerged or saturated unit weight is used in the calculation for the portion of the wall
under such influence. The pressure diagram for the condition will be such that to reflect the
status behind the wall at each level.

The lateral earth pressure due to partial submergence is due to both soil and water

The lateral pressure due to water is  w H

1
The total thrust due to water is  wH 2
2

Examples on the Application of Coulomb and Rankin theories of earth pressures

1) A retaining wall with a smooth vertical back retains a backfill material to a depth of 6
metres. The backfill material has a horizontal surface and has the following properties;

 1  28,   16kN / m 3 , C 1 ,  sat  20kN / m 3

3

Determine the magnitude of the total thrust a against the wall for

the conditions given and the point of application of the resultant for case ( c ).

a) The backfill is fully drained and the wall is restrained against yielding.
b) The backfill is fully drained and the wall is free to yield.
c) The wall is free to yield, and the water table has risen to 3metres from the bottom
and there is no drainage

CASE (a) Top horizontal surface of retained material

6 metres Po P

Po PA

For this case (a) take

 ko  1  sin  ,   16kN / m
3
Coefficient of earth pressure

Lateral pressure for this case is the earth pressure at rest

Po  KoZ = 1  sin   16kN / m 3  6m = 0.53 ×16×6 = 50.88kN/m2

Total thrust per metre length of wall = Po × area of pressure diagram =50.88kN/m2×0.5×6 m

= 152.64kN

CASE (b)

1  sin  1  sin 280

KA    0.36 ,   16kN / m 3
1  sin  1  sin 280

At 6 metres , active lateral earth pressure PA = 0.36×16×6 = 34.56 kN/m2

The total lateral active thrust = area of pressure diagram × height of retained material

= 0.5 ×34.56 kN/m2 ×6m

= 103.68kN/m length of wall

CASE (c) horizontal surface of retained material

Water table P1 P2