Table 3 Wall Displacements Required to Develop Active and Passive Earth Pressures (wu, 1975) Necessary soil |state of stress| Type of Movement Displacement Sand Active Parallel to wall 0.001H Active Rotation about base 0.001H Passive Parallel to wall 0.05 Passive Rotation about base |> 0.1 # Clay Active Parallel to wall 0.0041 Active Rotation about base 0.0048 Passive - For wall displacements less than those necessary to produce the failure conditions, the magnitude of the pressure on the wall lies between the extreme values. Figure 2 shows the typical variation in wall pressure with movement. For a rigid wall free to translate or rotate about its base, the active or passive condition occurs if sufficient movement can take place, and the pressure distribution remains approximately triangular for uniform sloping ground (Figure 3(a)). In some cases, rotation about the base or translation of a free standing wall may be Limited by a strong foundation or by some other restraint such as occurs in bridge abutments or walls framed-in with the superstructure. Structural deformations for walls are not usually sufficient alone to allow development of active pressures, and hence the wall is subject to pressures near those for at-rest conditions (Figure 3(b)) or those caused by compaction (Section 3.10). Thermal expansion of the structure may force the retaining wall into the soil producing higher earth pressures (Broms & Ingelson 1971). hen the top of the wall is restrained while the base can rotate, not all of the retained soil passes into the active state. Limited movement near the top of the wall, together with arching, leads to an approximately parabolic pressure distribution, with a corresponding force on the wall 10 to 15% higher than the force for the active condition (Figure 3(c)).