Triangular (Increasing) Load Surcharge Pressure and Resultant Force

[CWEngineer]

I am trying to find a reference that shows how to determine the surcharge pressure on back of a retaining wall and resultant force due to a triangular (increasing load)on the ground surface behind a wall. This load begins at a certain distance behind the wall. Appreciate your help.

Thanks

 

[cap4000]

I have the NAVFAC DM-7 Manual. See page 7-5-4 Figure 5-2 as a starting point. The figure is for a purely elastic isotropic material thus you will have to double the typical Boussinesq formula for your retaining wall condition. It has the horizontal stress component which you must double. Its an extremely long formula. How far away is the load from the wall and what is the peak load over what length? Can you just average it out into a simple uniform strip load? Good Luck with this very tricky surcharge condition.

 

[miecz]

Article 20.3.2.2 of the AREMA manual has a solution for a uniform strip load parallel to a bulkhead. One can replace a triangular load by a series of one foot wide strips with increasing pressure and sum the effects.