A generalized limit equilibrium method for the solution of active earth pressure on a retaining wall

In this paper, a generalized limit equilibrium method of solving the active earth pressure problem behind a retaining wall is proposed. Differing from other limit equilibrium methods, an arbitrary slip surface shape without any assumptions of pre-defined shapes is needed in the current framework, which is verified to find the most probable failure slip surface. Based on the current computational framework, numerical comparisons with experiment, discrete element method and other methods are carried out. In addition, the influences of the inclination of the wall, the soil cohesion, the angle of the internal friction of the soil, the slope inclination of the backfill soil on the critical pressure coefficient of the soil, the point of application of the resultant earth pressure and the shape of the slip surface are also carefully investigated. The results demonstrate that limit equilibrium solution from predefined slip plane assumption, including Coulomb solution, is a special case of current computational framework. It is well illustrated that the current method is feasible to evaluate the characteristics of earth pressure problem.