Mobilisation of soil

[sloany]

Soil at rest has a lateral factor of k(o) associated with it. How much movement (or soil strain) of a retaining wall is required to change the factor to k(a), assuming that the soil is granular. Or are there other factors to take into account?

 

[BigH]

Check out elementary soil mechanic books - they have a graph, usually, showing the deflection/height required to cause "movement" in the k values. Sorry, but my books are packed away as I'm moving.

 

[jdonville]

sloany,

See the NAVFAC books - I believe DM 7.2 has guidance on retaining wall displacements to mobilize active earth pressures.

Jeff


Jeffrey T. Donville, PE
TTL Associates, Inc.

http://www.ttlassoc.com

 

[fndn]

The following link, page 4 shows the graph from Navfac refereed to above by jdonville. The article is very well put together and comes in handy.

http://www.pdhonline.org/courses/c155/c155content.pdf#search='wall movement active condition'