| Title |
Influence of Backfill Width on the Lateral Earth Pressure acting on the Wall of Underground Structure |
| Abstract |
Basement wall of a building is designed to resist the earth pressure from backfill soils. Usually the earth pressure at rest is used. When the width of backfill is so narrow that the full Rankine failure wedge could not be developed, the earth pressure is affected by the friction between the basement wall and backfill.In this paper a theory is developed to formulate an equation to calculate the earth pressure on a basement wall considering the backfill width and the friction force between backfill and basement wall.Then walidity of the equation is checked by computer simulation of backfilling using F.E.M.From this study it is demonstrated that the distribution of earth pressure by a narrow backfill is different from a ordinary hydrostatic distribution and its magnitude is considerably smaller than earth pressure at rest on the lower part of a basement wall. Therefore, if backfilling is performed in a narrow space between basement wall and stable excavation surface such as rock surface, the equation derived in this study could be applied practically to calculate earth pressure. |