The effect of the bending rigidity of a wall on lateral pressure distribution

A two-dimensional model retaining wall system was developed to investigate the effect of the bending rigidity of a wall, supported at the top and bottom, on the lateral pressure distribution at completion-of-backfilling condition. A total of 120 000 pieces of 1.96 mm diameter stainless steel rods were placed piece by piece behind the 500 mm high walls in a parallel and dense stack. Ten two-component load cells were mounted to the inner face of the wall to obtain simultaneously normal and shear stresses acting on the wall. The stress-deformation characteristics of the steel-rod assembly and the friction angle between the steel rods and the stainless plate were investigated thoroughly to provide parameters of the backfill material used. Four types of walls with different bending rigidities were employed. The deflections at the half-height of the wall at the moment of completion of backfill ranged between 0.03 and 4.6 mm. A parameter R(r), the relative degree of deflection at the half-height of the wall, was used to evaluate the lateral pressure distribution on the walls for their at-completion conditions. Both the lateral pressure coefficients and the patterns of lateral pressure distribution on the walls were strongly related to R(r).