Analysis of active earth pressure behind rigid retaining walls considering curved slip surface

Abstract The active earth pressure acting on the rigid vertical retaining walls under translation mode has been investigated in this paper with a two-dimensional analytical method without prior hypotheses of the shape of soil arch, i.e. the trajectory of minor principle stress, which is totally different from with the existing method of combination of soil arch shape and horizontal flat-element analysis. Different emerging failure surface was compared and a parabolic surface was especially discussed in details. The proposed formula can be employed to predict the distribution of earth pressure and stresses in the failure zone. Furthermore, the analytical expression of the minor principle stress trajectory in the failure zone was derived from the stress equations. The results of the proposed analysis were compared with test data as well as the results of existing theories to validate its accuracy and applicability. The proposed distribution of earth pressure is in good agreement with the test data. Finally, a simple yet practical formulation was established to conveniently estimate active earth pressure in field.