Calculation of Active Earth Pressure in Cohesive Soils Based on Slope Stability
Downloads
Extensive engineering experience has shown that the stability of cohesive soil slopes behind retaining walls has a significant impact on earth pressure. This manuscript investigates the influence of the stability of a cohesive soil slope behind a retaining wall on earth pressure. To elucidate the patterns of how slope stability affects earth pressure, first, an analysis of the interaction mechanism between the wall and the slope was carried out to clarify the mechanical behavior of clay soil pressure. Secondly, based on the assumption of plane slip damage and limit equilibrium condition, the active earth pressure calculation equation for cohesive soil considering slope stability was proposed. Thirdly, based on the proposed equation, this manuscript analyzed the influence of various slope parameters on earth pressure and proposed a method for determining the most dangerous slip surface and inclination angle of a slope. Finally, the validity of this equation was verified through a large number of arithmetic examples. These results can be conveniently and easily applied to the calculation of earth pressures in slopes with clayey and sandy soil and also provide a new approach and reference for gaining a deeper understanding of the complex mechanical behavior of earth pressure in cohesive soils.
Downloads
[1] Gao D. Z. (1998). Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering. China Architecture and Building Press, Beijing, China.
[2] Chen, J., Qian, B., & Yu, M. (2024). Active Earth Pressure Calculation for a Translational Retaining Wall Considering the Influence of Basement Inverse Slope. International Journal of Geomechanics, 24(8). doi:10.1061/ijgnai.gmeng-9723.
[3] Ma, Q., Chen, Z., Zheng, J., Liu, Y., & Zeng, G. (2024). Earth Pressure Calculation of High Fill Culvert Considering Inclination of Soil Column Interface. Iranian Journal of Science and Technology - Transactions of Civil Engineering, 48(5), 3573–3590. doi:10.1007/s40996-024-01416-7.
[4] Deng, B., Yang, M. H., Wang, D. X., & Fan, J. W. (2022). Failure mode and active earth pressure calculation of unsaturated soil behind rigid retaining wall. Yantu Lixue/Rock and Soil Mechanics, 43(9), 2371–2382. doi:10.16285/j.rsm.2021.1924.
[5] Tang, Y., & Chen, J. (2020). New Approach for Active Earth Pressure Calculation on Rigid Retaining Walls with Cohesive Backfill. Soil Mechanics and Foundation Engineering, 57(4), 288–295. doi:10.1007/s11204-020-09668-x.
[6] Peng, M. X. (2009). Coulumb’s unified solution of active earth pressure on retaining wall. Yantu Lixue/Rock and Soil Mechanics, 30(2), 379–386. doi:10.16285/j.rsm.2009.02.054.
[7] Fang, W., Cui, Y., & Liu, S. (2025). Nonlinear Rankine pressure of unsaturated soil under transient infiltration. Canadian Geotechnical Journal, 62, 1–16. doi:10.1139/cgj-2024-0408.
[8] Guo, D., Zhang, M., Liu, Y., & Wu, Y. (2025). Unsaturated Rankine soil pressure analysis under unsteady seepage. Harbin Gongye Daxue Xuebao/Journal of Harbin Institute of Technology, 57(11), 45–52. doi:10.11918/202401053.
[9] Tracy, F. T., & Vahedifard, F. (2025). Analytical solutions for coupled hydromechanical modeling of lateral earth pressures in unsaturated soils. Computers and Geotechnics, 179. doi:10.1016/j.compgeo.2024.107038.
[10] Chen, F. Q., Chen, H. B., Wu, Y. X., Zhang, D. B., & Lin, Y. J. (2023). Numerical and analytical study on active earth pressure against inverted T-type retaining walls rotating about the base. Acta Geotechnica, 18(4), 2195–2216. doi:10.1007/s11440-022-01723-1.
[11] Zhu, D. Y., Qian, Q. H., & Lee, C. F. (2001). Active and passive critical slip fields for cohesionless soils and calculation of lateral earth pressures. Géotechnique, 51(5), 407-423. doi:10.1680/geot.2001.51.5.407.
[12] GB 50330-2013. (2013). Technical code for building slope engineering. Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development, Beijing, China. (In Chinese).
[13] Terzaghi, K. (1943). Theoretical Soil Mechanics. John Wiley and Sons, Hoboken, United States. doi:10.1002/9780470172766.
[14] Chen, Z., Li, S., Xue, Y., Ma, L., Lu, Y., & Yao, Z. (2026). Earth Pressure Calculation Method for Shallow-Buried Loess Tunnels Considering Support and Size Effects. International Journal of Geomechanics, 26(3). doi:10.1061/ijgnai.gmeng-12074.
[15] Hu, W., Zeng, Y., Zhu, X., & Hu, T. (2023). Determination of Passive Earth Pressure on a Cantilever Retaining Wall in a Narrow Foundation Pit Based on Logarithmic Spiral Sliding Surface. International Journal of Geomechanics, 23(8), 8516. doi:10.1061/ijgnai.gmeng-8516.
[16] Mazindrani, Z. H., & Ganjali, M. H. (1997). Lateral Earth Pressure Problem of Cohesive Backfill with Inclined Surface. Journal of Geotechnical and Geoenvironmental Engineering, 123(2), 110–112. doi:10.1061/(asce)1090-0241(1997)123:2(110).
[17] Fang, W., Wu, R.-F., Cui, Y.-J., & Liu, S. (2026). Rankine Active Earth Pressure of Unsaturated Soil Based on the Envelope Shell Model. International Journal of Geomechanics, 26(3), 04025364. doi:10.1061/ijgnai.gmeng-12524.
[18] Liang, L., Xu, C., Fan, X., & Chen, Q. (2023). Hyperbolic stress-strain behaviour of sandy soil under plane strain unloading condition and its application on predicting displacement-dependent active earth pressure. Computers and Geotechnics, 155, 105219. doi:10.1016/j.compgeo.2022.105219.
[19] Fan, L., Zheng, Z., Peng, S., Zhou, J., Shen, T., Wan, H., & Ma, H. (2023). An improved method of active earth pressure on rigid retaining wall under movement modes considering arching effects. International Journal for Numerical and Analytical Methods in Geomechanics, 47(3), 410–424. doi:10.1002/nag.3475.
[20] Que, Y., Long, C., & Chen, F. (2023). Slip Line Solution for Active Earth Pressure of Retaining Walls with Relief Shelves Subjected to Base Rotation. International Journal of Geomechanics, 23(10), 04023176. doi:10.1061/ijgnai.gmeng-8540.
[21] Lai, F., Zhang, N., Liu, S., & Yang, D. (2022). A generalised analytical framework for active earth pressure on retaining walls with narrow soil. Geotechnique, 74(11), 1127–1142. doi:10.1680/jgeot.21.00305.
[22] Pantelidis, L. (2019). The generalized coefficients of earth pressure: a unified approach. Applied Sciences, 9(24), 5291. doi:10.3390/app9245291.
- Authors retain all copyrights. It is noticeable that authors will not be forced to sign any copyright transfer agreements.
- This work (including HTML and PDF Files) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.![]()















