Displacement-based analysis of retaining wall with constrained backfill

Abstract

In some practical circumstances retaining structure has to stabilise the limited width of backfill which ends with a hillock or a rigid wall. A displacement-based analysis is proposed to analyse a retaining wall with narrow backfill. A retaining wall with backfill that could not mobilise full Rankine’s failure plane due to spatial constraint such geotechnical structure is considered to be a retaining wall with ‘Narrow’ backfill. A finite element modelling followed by plastic analysis is carried out to study such a practical application. Active earth pressure distribution on the wall is presented by prescribing displacement to the wall. It is observed that earth pressure reduces with an increase in the inclination of the rock face with respect to horizontal due to the constraint effect. The critical failure surface for narrow backfill wall is compared with that of an unconfined backfill wall. Results imply that conventional methods of estimation of earth pressure over-estimates in such circumstances.