A retaining wall with a vertical back of height 7.32 m supports a cohesionless soil of unit weight 17.3 kN/m3 and an angle of shearing resistance 0 = 30°. The surface of the soil is horizontal. Determine the magnitude and direction of the active thrust per meter of wall using Rankine theory.
Solution
For the condition given here, Rankine’s theory disregards the friction between the soil and the back of the wall.
The coefficient of active earth pressure KA is
