Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering

11

Lateral Earth Pressure

CHAPTER HIGHLIGHTS

Limit analysis and limit equilibrium methods – Earth pressure at rest – Rankine's states of plastic equilibrium – Rankine's earth pressure theory – Coulomb's earth pressure theory – Culmann's graphical method – Poncelet's graphical method

11.1 INTRODUCTION

In the field of civil engineering there are many problems associated with lateral earth pressure. Some of the structures which require an estimation of lateral pressure for their design are retaining walls, sheet pile walls, buried pipes, basement walls, braced excavations, cofferdams, thrust blocks, and others.

Lateral pressures most typically develop against structures supporting soil or water. While designing retaining structures for waterfront ...