ENHANCEMENT OF IMPROVED TRIAL WEDGE METHOD FOR NONLINEAR SLIDE PROBLEMS

We are proposing use of Improved Trial Wedge Method (ITWM) as a rational evaluation method of earth pressure on the cantilever retaining wall. However, this method is limited to linear failure surface. When backfill slope is not uniform, failure surface become nonlinear making ITWM inapplicable. In order to solve this problem, we enhanced ITWM to apply to the nonlinear slide problems. In order to prove applicability of this method, we compared analytical results of enhanced ITWM and conventional ITWM. We also performed model test under centrifugal force to compare experimental and theoretical results. As the results, we discovered that the shape of failure surface had little effects to analytical result, and there were close results between experimental model and theoretical results of ITWM.