Soil Mechanics

Lateral Earth Pressure-Part 1

Instructor: Sugeng Krisnanto, Ph.D.

Geotechnical Engineering Research Group

Faculty of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Institut Teknologi Bandung
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 Reference
• Das, B.M. and Sobhan, K. (2014) Principles of Geotechnical 
engineering, Eighth Edition, Cengage Learning, Stamford USA.

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 Chapter 13:
Lateral Earth Pressure

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 Lateral Earth Pressure
• Lateral earth pressures are a function of type 
and amount of wall movement, shear strength 
properties, weight of soil and drainage.

𝜎′ 𝜎′ 𝜎′
𝐾 𝐾 𝐾 𝐾 𝐾 𝐾
𝜎′ 𝜎′ 𝜎′
𝜎′ 𝜎′
𝜎′ 𝜎′ 4
 Lateral Erath Pressure
Lateral Earth pressure is a function of wall movement
(or relative lateral movement in the backfill soil)

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 Earth Pressure At Rest
Coefficient of earth pressure at rest, 
The vertical stress at any depth,z,is: 

u=water pressure

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 Coefficient of Earth Pressure at Rest
 For coarse‐grained soils (Jaky, 1944)
𝐾 1 sin 𝜙′
 For dense sand (Sherif, Fang, and Sherif, 1984)
𝛾
𝐾 1 sin 𝜙 1 5.5
𝛾
 For soils ranging from clay to gravel (Mayne and Kulhawy, 1982)
𝐾 1 sin 𝜙′ 𝑂𝐶𝑅
 For NC soils (Massarsch, 1979)
𝑃𝐼 %
𝐾 0.44 0.42
100
 For OC soils (Massarsch, 1979)
𝐾 𝐾 𝑂𝐶𝑅

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Total Force Per Unit Length of Wall
The distribution of lateral earth pressure at rest 
on a wall of height H retaining a dry soil having a 
unit weight of g. The total force per unit length 
of the wall, , is equal to the area of the 
pressure diagram, so:

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Earth Pressure At‐Rest for Partially
Submerged Soil

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Rankine’s Theory of Active Pressure

• The phrase plastic equilibrium in soil refers to the

condition where every point in a soil mass is on the
verge of failure. Rankine (1857) investigated the
stress conditions in soil at a state of plastic
equilibrium.

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11
 Rankine’s Active State
For cohesive soils

For cohesionless soils,c’=0

Coefficient of Rankine’s active earth pressure

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 Rankine’s Passive Pressure

• The lateral earth pressure, σ’p which is the 

major principal stress, is called Rankine’s 
passive earth pressure.

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14
• For cohesionless, c’=0 is

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 Rankine Active and Passive Pressure
with Sloping Backfill
Retaining walls with If the backfill is a granular soil with a
vertical backs and
horizontal backfills. In
drained friction angle φ’, and c’=0,
some cases, however, the then: 𝒂 𝒂
backfill may be
continuously sloping at an
angle, α, with the
horizontal:
The active force per unit length of the wall
can be given as:
• 𝑃 𝐾 𝛾𝐻 (active pressure)
• 𝑃 𝐾 𝛾𝐻 (pasive pressure)

Note:
The line of action of the resultant acts at a
distance of H/3 measured from the bottom of
the wall. 16
Values of Kp or Ka based on φ’ and α

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Backfill—Cohesionless Soil with 
Horizontal Ground Surface

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Backfill—Cohesive Soil with 
Horizontal Backfill
Active Case

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Backfill—Cohesive Soil with 
Horizontal Backfill
Pasive Case

z=0;

z=H;

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 Coulomb’s Earth Pressure Theory

• In this theory, Coulomb assumed that the

failure surface is a plane. The wall friction was
taken into consideration. The following
sections discuss the general principles of the
derivation of Coulomb’s earth‐pressure
t.heory for a cohesionless backfill.
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Coulomb’s Active Pressure
To determine the critical value of β for maximum 
Pa, we have

Coulomb’s active earth pressure as

Ka is Coulomb’s active earth‐pressure 
coefficient and is given by

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Coulomb’s Passive Pressure

Kp = Coulomb’s passive earth‐pressure coefficient,

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 Active Force on Retaining Walls with 
Earthquake Forces
Coulomb’s analysis for active force on retaining
walls discussed can conveniently extended to
include earthquake forces. To do so, let us
consider a retaining wall of height H with a
sloping granular backfill.

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Active Force on Retaining Walls with 
Earthquake Forces

The dynamic active force on the wall is the maximum value of Pae exerted by any 

wedge. This value can be expressed as:

where:

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 Common Types of Retaining
Walls in the Field
1. Gravity retaining walls
2. Semigravity retaining walls
3. Cantilever retaining walls
4. Counterfort retaining walls

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