Department of civil engineering

MSc Geotechnical engineering

Course outline
CENG 7203 – Analysis of Slopes,
Earth Retaining Structures and
Underground Structures
1. Advanced topics in lateral earth pressure
•Active and passive earth pressure Theories References:
•Retaining wall design 1. Abramson, L.W., Lee, T. S., Sharma, S., and
•Geosynthetic-reinforced soil retaining walls
2. Analysis and design of sheet pile structures and
Boyce, G. M., (2002) Slope stability and
Cofferdams stabilization methods, Wiley Interscience.
•Introduction 2. Chowdhury, R. (2010). Geotechnical Slope
•Types and Materials Used for Sheet piling
•Soil Properties for Sheet-pile Walls Analysis, CRC Press/Balkema /Taylor & Francis
•Sloping Dredge Line Group.
•Finite-element Analysis of Sheet-pile Walls
•Anchor Rods, Wales, and Anchorages for Sheet piling
3. Duncan, J. M. and Wright, S. G.(2005). Soil
•Overall Wall Stability and Safety Factors Strength and Slope Stability, John Wiley and
•Cofferdams Sons, Inc.
3. Slope stability analysis techniques
•Basic requirements for slope stability analyses 4. Cheng, Y.M. and Lau, C.K. (2008). Slope
•Stability Conditions for Analyses Stability Analysis and Stabilization, Routledge,
•Mechanics of Limit Equilibrium Procedures
•Methods of analyzing slope stability
Taylor & Francis Group.
•Simple Methods of Analysis 5. Budhi, Muni (2008). Foundations and Earth
•Slope Stability Charts Retaining structures, John Wiley and Sons,
•Spreadsheet Software
•Computer Programs New York
•Verification of Analyses 6. Pietro, L. (2008). Design and construction of
•Reinforced slopes and embankments
•Limit Equilibrium Analyses with Reinforcing Forces
tunnels, Springer
•Factors of Safety for Reinforcing Forces and Soil 7. Journals & Magazines
Strengths
•Types of Reinforcement
•Reinforcement Forces
•Allowable Reinforcement Forces and Factors of
Safety
•Orientation of Reinforcement Forces
•Reinforced Slopes on Firm Foundations
•Embankments on Weak Foundations
4. Underground structures
•Tunnel design
•Prediction and control of tunneling-induced
settlements and assessment of their impacts
•The design of face-support pressure
•The design of precast concrete segmental lining
•Backfilling of the tail void
 COURSE OBJECTIVES

• Upon completion of this class, students

should be able to:
– Calculate lateral earth pressures
– Design many types of retaining walls
– Properly select retaining wall systems
– Understand and use several slope stability
equilibrium methods
– Properly use slope design methods and remedial
approaches.
Lateral Earth Pressure
 Introduction
• Vertical or near vertical slopes of soil are
supported by:
– Retaining walls
– Cantilever sheet-pile walls
– Sheet-pile bulkheads
– Braced cuts etc
• The proper design of those structures requires
estimation of LEP.
 Introduction …
• LEP is a function of several factors, such as:
– The type & amount of wall movement
– The shear strength parameters of the soil (φ & C)
– The unit weight of the soil, and
– The drainage condition in the backfill
 Methods for analysis of lateral earth
pressure
• There are two basic approaches for estimating
the LEP, the theoretical and empirical approaches
which are discussed as follows:
• Theoretical approaches: Theoretical approaches
for estimation of LEP include (a) Coulomb’s earth
pressure theory, (b) Rankine’s earth pressure
theory, (c) Limit analysis, and (d) Elasticity theory.
• Empirical approaches: Empirical approaches are
for the design of indeterminate foundation
structures such as bracing excavation and
anchored bulkhead.
 Important terms
• Limit equilibrium: is a method of analysis through
which you speculate on a failure mechanism and
then use statics to determine the failure or the
collapse loads.
• Limit analysis: is a method by which a failure
criterion and the stress state in a body are used
to determine limiting failure loads.
• Upper bound: where the calculated load is likely
higher than the failure loads.
• Lower bound: where the calculated load is likely
lower than the failure load.
 Behavior of backfill with respect to wall
movement
• If the wall restrained from moving – the LEP at
any depth is referred to as at-rest earth pressure.
– Under this state the soil mass will be in a state of
static equilibrium.
• If the wall tilts away from the retained soil –
Active earth pressure
• If the wall is pushed into the retained soil –
Passive earth pressure
– Under these state the soil mass will be in a state of
plastic equilibrium.
Nature of lateral Earth pressure on retaining walls
Nature of variation of lateral Earth pressure at a certain depth
 LEP at-rest
• Consider a vertical wall of height H, unit
weight,  with a uniformly distributed load,
q/unit area applied.
Shear strength of soil
 Pressure at-rest

At any depth Z below the ground surface the vertical subsurface

stress is:

 = q + z
'
o

If the wall is at rest and is not allowed to move at all, either from the soil mass or
into the soil mass (i.e., there is zero horizontal strain), the lateral pressure at a depth
Z is:

 h = K o + u '
o
Where
u = pore water pressure
Ko = Coefficient of at-rest earth pressure
 Pressure at-rest ….

K o  1 − sin  '
For loose fill coarse material

(
K o = 1 − sin  ' OCR sin  ') For overconsolidated clay to gravel
(Mayne and Kulhawy, 1982)

The total force Po, per unit length of the wall can be calculated from the
pressure diagram as:
1
Po = P1 + P2 = qK o H + H 2 K o
2
The location of the line of action of the
resultant force Po, can be obtained by taking
the moment about the bottom of the wall.

H H
P1   + P2 
Z=    
_
2 3
Po
At-rest earth pressure diagram with water table located at
a depth z < H.
 At-rest earth pressure diagram with water table located at a
depth z < H

at z = 0,  h' = K o o' = K o q
at z = H1 ,  h' = K o o' = K o (q + H1 ) and
(
at z = H 2 ,  h' = K o o' = K o q + H1 +  ' H 2 )
Determining the total pressure distribution on the wall requires adding the
hydrostatic pressure u; which is zero from z=0 to z=H1 and is H2w at z= H2. Hence the
total force per unit length of the wall can be determined from the area of pressure
diagram as:

Po = A1 + A2 + A3 + A4 + A5

K oH12 + K o (q + H1 )H 2 + K o ' H 22 +  w H 22

1 1 1
Po = K o qH1 +
2 2 2