LEBANESE Dept.

: Civil engineering
UNIVERSITY Semester : 6
ENGINEERING Date : 17 May 2021
FACULTY Prof. : Dr. T. Al-Bittar
BRANCH I
Documents allowed Duration : 1 hour
Midterm Exam

Soil Mechanics II
A 6 m high retaining wall retains two layers of soil as shown in the figure 1 below. The water
table is located 2 m below the ground surface.

P.S: For the surcharge loading, consider a variation Δσ= q – q.(z/2)

Figure 1. Wall geometry

Use γconcrete=25kN/m3, Ka=tg2(π/4-φ’/2).

Part 1: Using Rankine’s theory,

1- Draw the lateral earth pressure distribution with depth and compute the
corresponding resultant loads. (40 points)

This wall is evidently unstable, the geotechnical engineer proposed two solutions. The first
one consists in adding a heel to this wall to obtain an L-shaped wall as shown in figure 2. The
second one consists in extending the length of the wall into soil 2 a distance D and to add an
anchor bolt at a distance equal to 2m from the ground surface as shown in figure 3.

Figure 2. The first solution

Figure 3. The second solution

The questions related to the first solution are presented in part 2. Part 3 presents the questions
related to the second solution. Choose one of the two solutions (part 2 or part 3) and answer
its corresponding questions.

Part 2: For the first solution proposed by the geotechnical engineer,

2- If the heel is 0.5m thick, find the width B of this heel in order to satisfy a factor of
safety Fs(overturning)=2. (30 points)
3- For a heel of width B=4.5m, calculate the factor of safety against bearing capacity
failure of the base soil. What can you conclude? (30 points)

Part 3: For the second solution proposed by the geotechnical engineer,

4- Calculate the depth of penetration (D). (35 points)

(Hint: take the sum of moment equal to zero at the location of the unknown force T)
5- Calculate the anchor force (T) per unit length of the wall. (25 points)

Good work 