Nonlinear Analysis of Active Earth Pressure on a Rigid Retailing Wall

The distribution of earth pressure on a retailing wall is influenced by many factors,and in many cases,it is nonlinear.When the sliding mass behind a retailing wall attains limiting equilibrium condition,the shape of sliding surface is usually not linear.In this paper,a nonlinear earth pressure distribution solution is proposed under the condition of curvilinear sliding surface,which is deduced by the slice method,and it is also compared with the results from Coulomb's earth pressure theory.It can be seen that Coulomb's active earth pressure is much less,and only when the surface of retailing wall is smooth and the distribution of earth pressure would be linear.