Numerical Study of Earth Pressure Distribution behind Cantilever Retaining Walls

Abstract

In some of the design guides, the method of designing a cantilever retaining wall gives different approaches in terms of the geometry of the wall. By considering the length of the heel, either Rankine’s or Coulomb’s earth pressure theories are applied in different cases. However, this may lead to drastic change of earth pressure due to small change in heel length.

In this study, numerical analysis of finite element method is applied to investigate the influence to the behavior of the soil behind the cantilever wall. Different heel lengths together with wall frictions are assigned to the model.

From the analysis results, the lateral pressure behind the wall and the failure mode of the soil are different between smooth wall and rough wall cases. However, the influence due to the heel length is not obvious.

On the other hand, the construction sequence of the backfill in the simulation and the location to examine the earth pressure also affect the results of analysis.