A Modified Computational Method of Active State Earth Pressure behind Rigid Retaining Wall

Modes and magnitude of wall movement have a great influence on the distribution of Earth pressure behind retaining wall. For gravity retaining wall exerted by cohesionless soil rotating outward about the base, based on Dubrova’s method of redistribution of pressure and forming mechanism of Earth pressure, the distribution pattern of internal friction angle along the wall back was established for different displacements, and then, an improved method of calculating active Earth pressure was proposed, which considers the influence of displacement. It considers the influence of displacement and also reflects the gradual formation process of Earth pressure. When the retaining wall is in an at-rest state, the distribution of Earth pressure calculated in this paper is defined as initial active state Earth pressure, and it is not equal to static Earth pressure, because the retaining wall has a tendency of active displacement. As the wall movement develops, the mobilized internal friction angle of the quasi-sliding surface increases gradually from the initial internal friction angle ϕ0 to the internal friction angle ϕ, and accordingly, the distribution of Earth pressure at the intersection of the sliding surface and the wall back decreases gradually from the distribution of initial active state Earth pressure in the static state to that of Coulomb active Earth pressure.