Abstract
Passive earth pressure exerts a great influence on the stress and deformation of earth retaining walls in braced excavation. To calculate this pressure, conventional ultimate earth pressure equation, or Rankine-Resal's and Coulomb's equation, are currently applied respectively to cohesive and sandy soil. However, these cnventional equation to determine passive earth pressure do not adequately take into account the excavation width during work and the shearing resistance on the earth retaining wall surface.
This paper deals with cohesive soil only, deriving a calculation equation for passive earth pressure, which takes into account excavation width and the shearing resistance of the earth retaining wall suface. Then, constants in this equation are determined using the calculation results obtained from the finite element method with elasto-plastic elements. The calculation results are also compared with measured values in the model test in order to check the applicability of the calculation equation for passive earth pressure thus obtained. Finally, this paper proposes a oracticable calculation equation for passive earth pressure.
