For retaining systems involving rigid walls, the soil-structure-interaction between the side soil and the wall affects the response of the system. The relationship between lateral earth pressure and wall displacement at any given depth is expected to be complex and affected by the height of the wall, the relative density of the backfill, the non-linearity of the soil response, and the type of wall movement. The objective of this paper is to investigate the static soil-structure interaction between rigid walls and sand backfill using finite element analyses for active states of loading. Numerical results indicate that (1) active conditions are mobilized at different wall displacements along the height of the wall and not at a fixed displacement as assumed in the literature, (2) the gradual mobilization of active earth pressure (starting from the at-rest pressure) at any given depth could be expressed as a function of the distortion of the wall using a simplified trilinear model, and (3) the use of a non-linear constitutive soil model is required in lieu of the more common elastic-perfectly plastic model where numerical instabilities were observed in the solution of the soil-structure interaction.
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