‫ﺑﺴﻢ ﷲ اﻟﺮﺣﻤﻦ اﻟﺮﺣﯿﻢ‬

REINFORCED CONCRETE - II
(An Elective Course)

LECTURE #17
Lateral Pressures on Retaining Walls

By

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Contents
2

 Objectives of the Present Lecture

 Lateral earth pressure
 At-rest lateral earth pressure
 Active and passive earth pressures
 Wall friction considerations
 Failure surface
 Active and passive earth pressure calculations
 Coulomb vs Rankine Equations
 Rankine expressions
 Total horizontal pressure
 Effect of surcharge

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Objectives of the Present Lecture
3

 To explain in brief how to estimate active and

passive lateral pressures on retaining walls.

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Lateral Earth Pressure
4

 Lateral earth pressure is the force

exerted by a soil mass on the
retaining wall.
 Depending on the magnitude and
nature of displacement of soil,
lateral pressure may be grouped into
three states:

At-Rest: The wall does not move.

Active: The wall rotates about the bottom away from the soil

Passive: The wall rotates about the bottom toward the soil.

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 At-rest Lateral Pressure
5

 For the at-rest condition, it is assumed

that there is no soil deformation. To
meet this condition, a retaining wall
would have to be completely rigid, and
be constructed without disturbing the
soil.

If a linear pressure variation is assumed, the at rest pressure

at any depth can be determined as
p0  k0 wh
where, k0  coefficient of earth pressure at rest

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Active and passive soil pressures
6

 The active pressure is the

minimum value of the lateral
pressure when a soil deposit
tends to expand horizontally
 The maximum value of the
earth pressure is the “passive”
pressure occurs when a soil
mass tends to compress.

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Contd.
7

 Due to lateral pressure, the

usual retaining wall will
deflect a little because it is
constructed of elastic
materials.
 Under the lateral
pressures, the retaining
wall will move a little
distance and active soil
pressure will develop.
 If the wall moves away
from the backfill, a passive
soil pressure will be the
result.

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Wall friction considerations
8

 For the active earth

pressure condition, it
is assumed that the
wall moves away from
the soil, and the soil
behind the wall will
move downward
relative to the wall.
 This relative
movement results in a
frictional force which
acts on the wall and on
the soil.

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Failure Surface
9

 A retaining wall is
supporting a sloping earth
fill.
 Part of the earth behind the
wall tends to slide along a
curved surface and push
against the retaining wall.
 The tendency of this soil to
slide is resisted by friction
along the soil underneath
(called internal friction) and
by friction along the vertical
face of the retaining wall.

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Active and Passive Earth Pressure calculations
10
Active earth pressure varies linearly with the depth of the backfill.

Passive earth pressure also varies linearly with the depth.

If a linear pressure variation is assumed, the active pressure

at any depth can be determined as
pa  k a wh
or, for passive pressure,
p p  k p wh '
where, k a  coefficient of active pressure
k p  coefficient of passive pressure

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Coefficients of active and passive pressures
11

 ka and kp can be calculated by theoretical

equations such as those of Rankine and Coulomb.
 The Rankine equation neglects the friction of the
soil on the wall, whereas the Coulomb formula
takes it into consideration.
 These two equations were developed for
cohesionless soils.
 For cohesive soils containing clays and/or silts it
is necessary to use empirical values determined
from field measurements.

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Coulomb vs. Rankine Equation
12

 Since the Coulomb equation does take into account

friction on the wall, it is thought to the more accurate
one and is often used for walls of over 20 ft ( or 7 m).
 The Rankine equation is commonly used for
ordinary retaining walls of 20 ft or less in height.
 It is interesting to note that the two methods give
identical results if the friction of the soil on the wall
is neglected.

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Rankine Expressions
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pa  k a wh; p p k p wh'
k a  coefficient of active pressure
k p  coefficient of passive pressure
 cos   cos 2   cos 2  
k a  cos   
 cos   cos 2   cos 2  
 
 cos   cos 2   cos 2 

k p  cos   
 cos   cos 2   cos 2 

 
  angle backfill makes with the horizontal
  angle of internal friction of the soil

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Rankine Expressions (Contd.)
14

If the backfill is horizontal,   0

 cos   cos 2   cos 2   1  sin 
k a  cos   
 cos   cos 2   cos 2   1  sin 
 
 cos   cos 2   cos 2  
k p  cos     1  sin 
 cos   cos 2   cos 2   1  sin 
 

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Total Horizontal Pressures
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The total horizontal pressures, Ha and Hp are equal to the areas of the respective
triangular pressure diagrams.

1 1 1
H a  pa h  k a ( wh)h  k a wh 2
2 2 2
Similarly,
1 ' 1 ' ' 1 '2
H p  p p h  k p ( wh )h  k p wh
2 2 2

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Effect of Surcharge
16

 If there are earth or other loads on the surface of

the backfill, the horizontal pressure applied to the
wall will be increased.
 If the surcharge is uniform over the sliding area
behind the wall, the resulting pressure is assumed
to equal the pressure that would be caused by an
increased backfill height having the same total
weight as the surcharge.
 It is usually easy to handle this situation by
adding a uniform pressure to the triangular soil
pressure for a wall without surcharge.

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 wheq  Total surcharge weight
Total surcharge weight
 heq 
w
where, w  unit weight of backfill
CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui 17 May 28, 2017
 Further Reading
18

Read more about the retaining walls from:

Design of Reinforced Concrete by Jack C. McCormac

and Russell H. Brown, Eighth Edition, John Wiley &
Sons.

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017

 Thank You
19

CE 470 (RC - II) : Dr. Nadeem A. Siddiqui May 28, 2017