Active Earth Pressure on Rigid Retaining Walls Built Near Rock Faces

Abstract Rock faces prevent adequate calculation of the active earth pressure of retaining wall near rock faces via the Coulomb and Rankine theories. The research is based on differential slice method and soil arching; it proposes the analytical solutions for the active earth pressure on retaining walls, which have a narrow width of retained soils along with planar slip surfaces. Four different cases dependent on the values of retained soil width and inclination angle of the rock faces are discussed; the inclination angle of planar slip surface in each case is also solved. The critical dimension of retained soils between the Coulomb failure plane and the planar slip surfaces influenced by rock faces is presented. The proposed solutions are compared with previous experimental results, previous analytical solutions, and numerical results. An accurate forecast could be provided for the active earth pressure on rigid retaining walls built near rock faces via the proposed analytical solution.