At-rest Earth Pressure Relationships

Richard Church ECI-284 Theoretical Geomechanics Winter Quarter, 2003 03/11/2003

Introduction The purpose of this report is to present several factors affecting the determination of atrest earth pressures and their application to the design of earth retaining structures. The problem of estimating lateral earth pressures has been facing engineers for centuries. Couplet and Coulomb developed their theories in the 18th century (1726 and 1776 respectively) and Rankine developed his in 1857. For the estimates of these theories to be valid, deflection of the structure must occur, whether it be translation or rotation into or out of the soil mass in question, to develop active or passive lateral earth pressures (Fig 1).

Fig. 1: Relationship of earth pressures to wall movements (after Department of the Navy 1982b)

Most earth retaining problems involve the movement of the structure away from the soil mass, the active condition. However, in his study of lateral earth pressures, Old Earth Pressure Theories and New Test Results (1920), Terzaghi noted the importance of lateral earth pressures developed on structures which experience no deflection, and termed them at-rest earth pressures (Andrawes & El-Sohby, 1973). As is shown in this report, at-rest earth pressures are significantly greater than active earth pressures and are often not taken into account in many common engineering problems (Fig 2).

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1.0 0.9 0.8 0.7 0.6 At-rest Active

Ko 0.5
0.4 0.3 0.2 0.1 0.0 20 25 30 ' 35 40 45

Fig 2: A Comparison of At-rest Earth and Active Earth Pressure Coefficients At-rest earth pressures develop under restrained conditions, when no outward strain is allowed. A few common examples are: a braced wall and a basement wall. An

uncommon example that generally is not considered during retaining wall is the intersection of two attached, perpendicular (or any other angle that does not allow outward strain) walls. Furthermore, because designs incorporate factors of safety, walls may be quite rigid and pressures may be greater than active (Army Corps of Engineers, 1989).

Additionally, at-rest earth pressures, like active and passive earth pressures, are affected by the micro-structure of the soil in question, the geometry of the structure/soil system, and the stress history of the soil. These factors have been the subject of many studies, some of which are summarized in this paper. However, before a discussion of the variation of at-rest earth pressures, the definition of at rest earth pressures must be discussed. Definition of At-rest Earth Pressures Generally, the at-rest earth pressure is the horizontal component of the in-situ stress state, or the horizontal pressure acting on an earth retaining structure. At-rest lateral earth At-Rest Earth Pressures Term Paper 2 of 8 Theoretical Geomechanics ECI-284 Winter Quarter 2003

pressures can be shown to be some multiple of the vertical stress at any point. This concept can be shown with the following ratio: Ko = h v

where h is the horizontal pressure, v is the vertical pressure, and Ko is the coefficient of earth pressure at rest, as coined by Terzaghi (1920). The trick in determining at-rest earth pressures is in determining Ko . A more specific definition has been offered by Bishop (1958). The coefficient of earth pressure at rest is the ratio of the lateral to the vertical effective stresses in a soil consolidated under the condition of no lateral deformation, the stresses being principal stresses with no shear stress applied to the planes on which these stresses act (Bishop, 1958), or: Ko = 'h 'v

where 'h is the horizontal principal effective stress and 'v is the vertical principal effective stress.

In there 1973 paper, Factors Affecting Coefficient of Earth Pressure Ko , Andrawes and El-Sohby provide an even more specific definition of Ko . It is conceivable that a soil leement subjected to any stress history may thereafter suffer a stress change in order to prevent further change in the lateral strain. Consequently, it is fundamental to express the coefficient of earth pressure at rest as an instantaneous incremental ratio: Ko = 'h 'v

or, the coefficient of earth pressure at rest is the ratio of the increment in the minor principal effective stress to the corresponding increment in the major principal effective stress when no strain occurs in the direction of the minor principal effective stress (Andrawes & El-Sohby, 1973).

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Normally Consolidated Soils, Jakys Ko Equation In 1944 J. Jakys paper The Coefficient of Earth Pressure at Rest presented his theoretical derivation of Ko : 2 1 + sin ' 3 K o = (1 sin ') (1 + sin ') where is the effective angle of internal friction. The above equation can be simplified to the following approximation: K o = (1 sin ') . The difference in the calculated values is shown in Fig 3, and ranges from 9 percent at low friction angles to 16 percent at high friction angles. However, considering the difficulty of making an appropriate choice for for a given soil, this approximation is sufficiently accurate for most engineering purposes (Wroth, 1972).
0.7 Jaky's Simplified Equation 0.6 0.5 Ko 0.4 0.3 0.2 20 25 30 ' 35 40 45 Jaky's Theoretical Equation Brooker and Ireland's Equation

Fig 3: Comparison of Several Ko Equations for Normally Consolidated Soils

In their determination of Ko Brooker and Ireland (1965) proposed an equation similar in appearance to Jakys simplified equation, but more similar in results to his theoretical equation. Many researchers have proposed many equations for the calculation of Ko , however, the literature suggests that Jakys simplified equation provides the best agreement with experimental results from tests conducted on normally consolidated soils. At-Rest Earth Pressures 4 of 8 Theoretical Geomechanics Term Paper ECI-284 Winter Quarter 2003

Effect of Variations in Micro -Structure on Ko Moroto and Muramatsu (1987) derive a theoretical equation to determine Ko based on the anisotropy of an overconsolidated clay soil. Their equation is base on the ratio of the horizontal modulus of elasticity of the soil to its vertically elasticity: Ko = n = Eh . Ev

While their equation is theoretically sound, it does not provide a good correlation with insitu values of Ko . Although not readily amenable to mathematical formulation in terms of other soil parameters, Ko can be regarded as a complex function of the microstructural composition of a soil (Abdelhamid & Krizek, 1976). This being said, these researchers set out to discover the effects of anisotropy on a consolidating clay. They prepared two different types of samples from a consolidated slurry of Hydrite 10 Georgia Kaolinite. One sample was mixed with a solution of 0.01 M NaOH before consolidation to yield dispersed clay. The other sample was mixed with a 0.01 M solution of NaCl before consolidation to yield a flocculated clay. However, the data did not suggest a relationship between anisotropy and Ko . This conclusion, although not anticipated at the outset of this study, suggests that the lateral earth pressure at-rest is not strongly affected by the short term interparticle michromechanisms (as opposed to long-term cementation bonds, for example) that prevail in a clay mass (Abdelhamid & Krizek, 1976).

Effect of Geometry on Ko Based on Coulombs active earth pressure equation, sloping backfill can significantly increase the active earth pressure a structure. It follows that sloping backfill should significantly increase at-rest earth pressures on a structure. However, only the only reference to this condition was found in the Army Corps of Engineers retaining wall design manual (Army Corps of Engineers, 1989). The manual presented an equation given in the Danish Code (Danish Geotechnical Institute, 1978), which is an extension of Jakys simplified equation to sloping backfills: At-Rest Earth Pressures Term Paper 5 of 8 Theoretical Geomechanics ECI-284 Winter Quarter 2003

K o = (1 sin ')(1 + sin ) where is the angle of the backslope above horizontal. It can be seen in Fig 4 that sloping backfill can almost double Ko for a 2:1 (H:V) slope.

1.2 1.0

Jaky's Equation Danish Code, 3:1 Slope Danish Code, 2:1 Slope

Ko 0.8
0.6 0.4 0.2 20 25 30 35 40 45

'

Fig 4: A Comparison of At-rest Earth Pressures For Various Backslope Angles Effect of Stress History on Ko Mayne and Kulhawy (1982) provide an excellent summary of the effects of stress history on Ko , including data compiled from over 170 different soils tested and reported by many researchers (Mayne & Kulhawy, 1982). The authors conduct a statistical analysis of this data and determine relationships between at-rest earth pressure and stress history. Three stress history regimes are identified: virgin loading, unloading, and reloading (Fig 5).

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1st unloading

h
1st reloading Virgin loading

v Fig 5: Simplified Stress History of Soil Under Ko Conditions (Mayne and Kulhawy, 1982) The Jaky formula was found to agree with the data for normally consolidated soils. Analysis of the unloading portion of the stress path provided a relatio nship between Ko and OCR that builds on Jakys simplified equation: K o = (1 sin ')OCR sin '
where OCR is the overconsolidation ratio. Fig 6 illustrates the increase in Ko for several OCR values.
2.5 2.0 1.5 Ko 1.0 0.5 0.0 20 25 30 ' 35 40 45
OCR = 1 OCR = 3 OCR = 10 OCR = 2 OCR = 5 OCR = 20

Fig 6: A Comparison of Ko for Different Overconsolidation Ratios

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References Abdelhamid, M.S., and Krizek, R.J. (1976), At-Rest Lateral Earth Pressures of a Consolidating Clay, Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE, Vol. 102, No. GT7, July, pp. 721-738. Andrawes, K.Z., and El-Sohby, M.A. (1973), Factors Affecting Ko , Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE, Vol 99, No. SM7, July, pp. 527-539. Army Corps of Engineers, (1989), Engineering and Design - Retaining and Flood Walls, Publication Number: EM 1110-2-2502 Bishop, A.W., (1958), Test Requirements for Measuring the Coefficient of Earth Pressure at Rest, Proceedings, Brussels Conference on Earth Pressure Problems, Vol 1, pp. 2-14. Danish Geotechnical Institute, (1978), "Code of Practice for Foundation Engineering, Danish Geotechnical Institute, Bulletin No. 32, p 52. Jaky, J. (1944), The Coefficient of Earth Pressure at Rest, Journal for Society of Hungarian Architects and Engineers, October, pp. 355-358. Mayne, P.W., and Kulhawy, F.H., (1982), K o -OCR Relationships in Soil, Journal of the Geotechnical Engineering Division, ASCE, Vol 108, No. GT6, June, pp. 851-872. Moroto, N. and Muramatsu, M. (1987), Ko Value and Degree of Anisotropy of Overconsolidated Clay, Proceedings, 9th Southeast Asian Geotechnical Conference, Sec. 5, pp. 25-32. Terzaghi, K. (1920), Old Earth Pressure Theories and New Test Results, Engineering News Record, Vol. 85, p. 632. Wroth, C.P. (1975), In Situ Measurements on Initial Stresses and Deformation Characteristics, Proceedings, In Situ Measurement of Soil Properties, North Carolina State University, Geotechnical Engineering Division, pp. 181-230.

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