Lateral Earth Pressure

Rankine’s Active and Passive states

• In the case of at rest condition no wall
movement is considered.
• If the wall movement is considered:
– Moving the wall away from soil; and
– Moving the wall towards the soil.
Rankine’s active state
 Active earth pressure
• Wall movement is away from the soil (towards
the excavation)
• Initial stress condition is ‘at rest condition’.
• With wall movement, horizontal stress decreases.
• With further wall movement, Mohr circle will
touch the failure Mohr-Coulomb failure line
causing soil failure.
• At soil failure, let us assume the horizontal stress
to be σa.
Rankine’s Passive State
 Passive earth pressure
• Wall movement towards the soil (away from the
excavation)
• Initial stress condition is ‘at rest condition’.
• With wall movement, horizontal stress increases.
• After a certain wall movement, horizontal stress
becomes the major principal stress.
• With further wall movement, Mohr circle will touch the
failure Mohr-Coulomb failure line causing soil failure.
• At soil failure, let us assume the horizontal stress to be
σh.
 Passive earth pressure
• Similar to the active earth pressure condition,
it can be shown that the lateral earth pressure
at failure, σh is given by:
Failure planes
Cohesionless backfill – Active State
• Assume horiz. ground surface and smooth wall
• No surcharge load
Cohesionless backfill – Passive State
• Assume horiz. ground surface and smooth wall
• No surcharge load
Cohesionless backfill – Active State
and Partially Submerged
Assume horiz. ground surface and smooth wall
Cohesionless backfill – Passive State
and Partially Submerged
• Assume horiz. ground surface and smooth wall
Cohesive horiz. Backfill – Active State
• The active lateral pressure is given by:

• The horizontal stress will be zero at depth Zc.

• and
Cohesive sloping backfill – Active State
• smooth wall
Cohesive sloping backfill – Passive State
• Smooth wall
 Modified Rankine theory for c-φ soil
• If the soil is having both cohesion and friction
(c/≠0 and ɸ/ ≠0), Rankine method was
modified by Mazindrani and Ganjali (1997).
• For active pressure:
 Modified Rankine theory for c-φ soil
• For passive pressure:

• Where
Modified Rankine theory for c-φ soil
Modified Rankine theory for c-φ soil
 Coulomb theory
• One of the earliest method developed to
estimate the lateral earth pressure is by C. A.
Coulomb (1776)
• Soil is isotropic and homogeneous and has
both internal friction and cohesion.
• The rupture surface is a plane surface (as BC
of Figure shown) and the backfill surface is
planar (it may slope but is not irregularly
shaped).
 Coulomb theory
• The friction resistance is distributed uniformly along
the rupture surface and the soil-to-soil friction angle is
ɸ.
• The failure wedge is a rigid body undergoing
translation.
• There is wall friction, i.e., as the failure wedge moves
with respect to the back face of the wall a friction force
develops between soil and wall. This friction angle is
usually termed δ.
• Failure is a plane strain problem—that is, consider a
unit interior slice from an infinitely long wall.
Coulomb theory – Active pressure
• Forces acting on the failure wedge are as
shown below:
• Considering the force angle and the sine rule,
it can be shown that:

• And
As all the other quantities are constant,
differentiating with respect to the inclination
of the assumed failure plane gives the
maximum active force as:
• This expression can be written as:

• Where
Coulomb Active pressure coefficients
Coulomb Active pressure coefficients
Coulomb theory – Passive pressure
• Forces acting on the failure wedge in passive
failure are as given below:
• Similar to the active case, it can be shown
that:

• And
• As all the other quantities are constant,
differentiating with respect to the inclination
of the assumed failure plane gives the
maximum passive force as:
• This expression can be written as:

• Where
Coulomb Passive pressure coefficients
Coulomb Passive pressure coefficients
Line of action of the resultant force
 Culmann's graphical methods
• An expedient method for creating a graphic
solution Coulomb's earth pressure theory was
given by Culmann
Culmann's graphical methods - Active

• Draw the features of the retaining wall and the

backfill to a convenient scale
• Determine the value of q = a - d (degrees) where
d = angle of wall friction.
• Draw a line AC that makes an angle f with the
horizontal.
• Draw a line AD that makes an angle q with AC.
• To consider some trial failure wedges, draw lines
AC1, AC2……… ACn .
• Find the areas of BAC1 , BAC2……. BACn .
• . Determine the weight of soil, W, per unit length
of the retaining wall in each of the trial failure
wedges as follows:
WI =(Area of BAC1 x g x 1)
W2 =(Area of BAC2 x g x 1)
…………………………………….
Wn = (Area of BACn x g x 1)

• Adopt a convenient load scale and plot the

weights W1,W2 ,……Wn along line AC, starting
from A, ending at w1,w2 ,……wn respectively.
• Draw w1w1/, w2w2/ ……. wnwn/ parallel to the
line AD.
• Draw a smooth curve through points w1/ ,w2/
w3/…....wn/ and this curve is called the
Culmann line.
• Draw a tangent to the Cullman Line parallel to
line AC. Let wa/, be the point of tangency.
• Awa/, extended to meet the surface at Ca ,is
the failure surface.
• Draw a line wawa/.parallel to the line AD.
Awawa/ represent the force triangle at failure.
Culmann's graphical methods - Passive