Study on active earth pressure of narrow backfill of balance weight retaining wall under translational displacement mode

Abstract

The balance weight retaining wall is a kind of gravity retaining wall. However, the theoretical results of the earth pressure are relatively few. The failure modes of backfill soil under different factors such as width to depth ratio of fill soil and rock inclination angle were studied by finite element limit analysis. Based on differential element methods and wedge limit equilibrium method, the active earth pressure calculation formula of balance weight retaining wall under translational displacement mode was derived. According to the parameter analysis, the interface friction resistance escalates alongside the rise in the boundary friction angle. The active earth pressure resultant force of the retaining wall increases with the increase of the width to depth ratio of filling, and decreases with the increase of the friction angle of filling. The design of counterweight retaining wall can benefit from the scientific basis and technical reference offered by the research findings.

Keywords

• Balance weight retaining wall
• Narrow backfill
• Translational displacement
• Active earth pressure
• Differential element method