Rankine pseudo-static earth pressure for c-φ soils

This study provides an analytical solution for calculation of seismic active earth pressure on the back of a rigid wall retaining cohesional- frictional (c-φ) soil. The proposed formulation is based on the conjugate stress concept, without employing any additional assumptions, similar to Rankine's original earth pressure formulation. The effects of sloping backfill and wall inclination are considered. In addition, a closed form solution has been derived for the soil-wall friction angle as a function of inertial forces and problem geometry for any given pseudo-static acceleration, as opposed to the constant value commonly employed in practice. The net seismic active force calculated based on the proposed formulations is found to be comparable with those obtained from previously published methods.