Lecture on 25-01-21

CE-335 (2 Credit Hours)

Geotechnical Engineering-II

Lateral Earth Pressure-I

Instructor:

Dr Irshad Ahmad

Department of Civil Engineering

University of Engineering and Technology, Peshawar
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 Contents
 Lateral Earth Pressures- Definitions
 Rankine’s Lateral Earth pressure

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 Lateral Earth Pressure
 Retaining walls are used to support
slopes and vertical cuts that are too
steep or too deep to remain stable if
unsupported.
 Depending upon the movement of
the wall (direction and magnitude),
three types of lateral earth pressures
are developed: (1) Active pressure
(pa) (2) passive earth pressure (pp) (3)
At-rest pressure (po)

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 Active Lateral earth pressure (pa)
 If the wall yields or displaces away from the backfilled soil, some of
the retained backfill would break away from the rest of the soil mass
and slide down, thereby exerting a pressure on the wall. This pressure
is termed the active earth pressure (the soil is active). Vice versa, the
active earth pressure is the force which tends, by rotating and/or
translation, to put the retaining structure out of equilibrium. The active
earth pressure indicates the magnitude of the force which can develop
upon the motion of a retaining structure away from the earth mass,
and the structure must resist this force.

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 Passive Lateral earth pressure (pp)
 If the wall is forced against the earth mass,
the pressure is termed the passive earth
pressure, or the passive earth resistance.
Passive earth resistance is encountered, for
example, when the supporting toe of an arch
bridge transmits its horizontal component of
the inclined load through the foundation of
the bridge to the soil. One also encounters
passive earth resistance in sheet piling
problems. The passive earth pressures
indicates the maximum value of the force
which can develop upon the motion of the
retaining structure toward the earth mass, a
force which the soil must resist before it 5
ruptures.
 At-rest Lateral earth pressure (po)
 If the wall does not translocate but is fixed rigidly, the pressure is
termed earth pressure at rest.

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Rankine’s Lateral Earth Pressure Theory (1876)

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State of Plastic Equilibrium

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Active and Passive Rankine States

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Active pressure

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Active Rankine Pressure

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Passive pressure

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Distribution
of Active
and Passive
Earth
Pressures

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Total Active and Passive Thrust (Pa, Pp)

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Lateral earth pressure for vertical surcharge pressure (q)

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 Stratified Soil Deposit

 Active pressure will be due to (1) self weight of soil-1, linearly increasing from top
to the bottom of soil-1 (2) self weight of soil-2, linearly increasing from top of
soil-2 to its bottom and (3) The soil-1 will act as surcharge on soil-2 resulting in a
rectangular active stress starting from top of soil-2 to its bottom.
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Drained
Analysis

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Undrained Analysis

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Sloping soil surface

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Sloping soil surface-Active Pressure

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Active Pressure: Sloping soil surface for c=0

Horizontal and Vertical Components of Pa:

Pa,h=Pa cos
Pa,v=Pa sin
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Passive Pressure Sloping soil surface for c=0

Similarly, Horizontal and Vertical Components of Pp:

Pp,h=Pp cos
Pp,v=Pp sin

(Not covered in this course ) 25

Example: sloping surface

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At-rest Earth pressure

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 Ko

 When sloping ground the Eurocode equation is multiplied by (1+sin()) 28

 Lateral
strain Vs
earth
pressure

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