Analytical expression for dynamic active earth pressure from c-Φ soil backfill with surcharge

Abstract

In this paper, an analytical expression is derived for the total dynamic active force from the c-Φ soil backfill with surcharge under seismic loading conditions. The special cases of this new expression result in the expressions given by earlier researchers for different field situations of soil backfills with and without seismic loadings. A graphical presentation is made to recognize the importance of angle of shearing resistance and cohesion of the soil backfill, surcharge and direction of vertical seismic loadings. As expected, this shows that the total dynamic active force decreases with an increase in the angle of shearing resistance of the soil backfill. Also, for any value of angle of shearing resistance, the presence of cohesion in the backfill decreases the active force, however, the surcharge load increases the active force significantly whether the seismic load acts or not. A numerical example is presented to illustrate the steps for calculation of total dynamic active force. J. Ross Publishing, Inc. © 2011