Estimation of active earth pressure on retaining wall with translation mode

Considering the movement effect of translation mode, friction angle reduction coefficient and method of bevel-layer analysis,estimation of active earth pressures is deduced for cohesiveless soil retaining wall with translation mode.In order to validate the feasibility of the proposed approach, a model test for active earth pressures was conducted in laboratory;and the proposed method was used to analyze this model. Experimental and theoretical results indicate that the curve of active earth pressure increases firstly and decreases then along the depth of retaining wall with different values of s/s(c),and it has a point of intersection with the curve of Coulomb active earth pressure at the depth of 0.6H, where H is the wall height. Further study indicates that the action point position of the active earth pressure is higher than 1/3 times wall height.