Simplified Method for Calculating the Active Earth Pressure on Retaining Walls of Narrow Backfill Width Based on DEM Analysis

Abstract

Spaces for backfills are often constrained and narrowed when retaining walls must be built close to existing stable walls in urban areas or near rock faces in mountainous areas. e discrete element method (DEM), using Particle Flow Code (PFC-2D) software, was employed to simulate the behavior of cohesionless soil with narrow width behind a rigid retaining wall when the wall translation moved away from the soils. e simulations focused on the failure model of the soil when the movement of the wall reaches the value where active earth pressure occurs, and the shape of the sliding surface was captured. en, based on the limit equilibrium method with the obtained slip surfaces in PFC-2D, a simplified analytical method is presented to obtain a solution of the active earth pressure acting on rigid retaining with narrow backfill width. e point of application of the active earth pressure is also obtained. e calculated values agree well with those from physical tests in the previous literature. Furthermore, the effects of the width of the backfill, internal friction angle of soil, and wall-soil friction angle on the distribution of active earth pressure are discussed.

DEM Analysis and Simplified Calculation of Passive Earth Pressure on Retaining Walls Backfilled with Sand Considering Strain-Softening Behavior

“…The slip surface of the soil is interpreted as the boundary between the stationary region and moving region. The similar way has been used by previous literatures [41,49]. In addition, it should be pointed out that when the soil reaches the passive limit state, as the retaining wall continues to move, although the displacement of particles in the moving area increases, the size of the moving area does not change, and the position of the sliding surface does not change.…”

“…Additionally, the particle flow program integrates two-dimensional (PFC-2D) and threedimensional (PFC-3D). Compared with PFC-3D model, although there are fewer particles in PFC-2D model, it has certain advantages in analyzing the earth pressure problem [40,41] assumed to be plane strain.…”

Influence of Friction Angles on Earth Pressures in Dry Granular Flow Dynamics and Soil Mechanics

“…According to the agreement, in mountainous areas where rock formations are close to the wall, mechanically stabilized earth walls are built in front of already stabilized walls to expand existing routes [23]. With the influence of backfill width, internal soil friction angle, and wall-soil friction angle, Yang and Deng [24] presented an analytical technique to compute active earth pressure coefficients and their classes on the rigid retaining wall.…”

Quantification of the Active Lateral Earth Pressure Changes on Retaining Walls at the Leading Edge of Steep Slopes

“…discovered that increasing the backfill slope causes an increase in the dynamic active earth pressure. Further, (Greco, 2013;Yang and Deng, 2019), investigated the sloping and horizontal backfill units using the limit equilibrium approach to generate analytical equations for active earth pressure. They discovered that the geometry of the sliding rupture surface altered the active earth pressure.…”