%0 Journal Article
%T Experimental and Numerical Study of At-Rest Lateral Earth Pressure of Overconsolidated Sand
%A Magdi El-Emam
%J Advances in Civil Engineering
%D 2011
%I Hindawi Publishing Corporation
%R 10.1155/2011/524568
%X The paper presents a one-meter-height rigid facing panel, supported rigidly at the top and bottom to simulate nonyielding retaining wall system. A set of load cells is used to measure the horizontal force at the top and bottom of the facing panel, which is converted to equivalent horizontal earth pressure acting at the back of the wall. Another set of load cells is used to measure the vertical load at the bottom of the wall facing, both at the toe and the heel. Uniformly graded sand was used as backfill soil. The measured wall responses were used to calibrate a numerical model that used to predict additional wall parameters. Results indicated that the measured horizontal earth force is about three times the value calculated by classical at-rest earth pressure theory. In addition, the location of the resultant earth force is located closer to 0.4£¿H, which is higher compared to the theoretical value of H/3. The numerical model developed was able to predict the earth pressure distribution over the wall height. Test set up, instrumentation, soil properties, different measured responses, and numerical model procedures and results are presented together with the implication of the current results to the practical work. 1. Introduction Earth pressure distribution behind retaining wall systems is a soil-structure interaction problem. Therefore, determination of earth pressure distribution at the back of the wall should be done interactively with the deflection of the wall. However, this is not the case in the current design practice. Practically, the hydrostatic earth pressure distribution behind the wall is adopted according to the at-rest, active, or passive earth pressure theories for both internal and external stability analyses. Furthermore, triangular distribution is typically assumed for of the lateral earth pressure for at-rest, active or passive conditions. This assumption can be true for walls that are free to move laterally or rotate around the toe with sufficient movement to initiate the sliding wedge (i.e., active or passive state). However, this is not the case for nonyielding walls that do not develop the limiting static active or passive earth pressure, because the movements are not sufficient to fully mobilize the backfill soil shear strength. Typically, all underground basements walls, tunnels, bridge abutments, culverts, and piles are examples of nonyielding structures that are in contact with soil. These structures usually undergo relatively very small movement which is insufficient to initiate the sliding wedge behind the wall and to
%U http://www.hindawi.com/journals/ace/2011/524568/