Journal of the Korean Geotechnical Society ISSN:1229-2427(Print) 2288-646X(Online) 한국지반공학회 논문집

The evaluation of passive earth pressure plays a crucial role in the design of earth-retaining structures such as retaining walls and temporary earth-retaining walls to withstand horizontal earth pressure. In the earth pressure theory, active and passive earth pressures represent the earth pressures at the limit state, where the wall displacement reaches the maximum allowed displacement. In the design of earth-retaining structures, the passive earth pressure is considered as the resisting force. In this context, the limit displacement at which passive earth pressure occurs is significantly greater than that associated with the active earth pressure. Therefore, it is irrational to apply this displacement directly to the calculation of passive earth pressure. Instead, it is necessary to consider the mobilized passive earth pressure exerted at the allowable horizontal displacement to evaluate the structural stability. This study proposes an allowable wall displacement, denoted as 0.002 H (where H represents the excavation depth), based on a literature review that focuses on sandy soils. To calculate the mobilized passive earth pressure from the wall displacement, a semi-empirical equation is proposed. By analyzing the obtained data on mobilized passive earth pressure, a reduction factor applicable to Rankine’s passive earth pressure is proposed for practical application in sandy soils under different wall movement types.