LATERAL EARTH PRESSURE THEORY
Lateral earth pressure is the pressure that soil exerts in the horizontal direction.
Rankine extended earth pressure theory by deriving a solution for a complete soil mass in a state of
failure, as compared with Coulomb's solution which had considered a soil mass bounded by a
single failure surface.
There are two classical earth pressure theories. They are
1. Coulomb's earth pressure theory.
2. Rankine's earth pressure theory.
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1. Coulomb's earth pressure theory.
Coulomb's theory states that the total lateral earth pressure is equal to the reaction
exerted by the retaining wall when the wedge of soil tends to slide and acts at an angle 8
with the normal to the back of the wall.
2. Rankine's earth pressure theory.
The Rankine's theory assumes that there is no wall friction , the ground and failure surfaces
are straight planes, and that the resultant force acts parallel to the backfill slope. These
backfill materials may exert certain lateral pressure on the wall.
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