Earth Pressures on Conduits and Retaining Walls.

摘要

The objective of this investigation was to improve current design procedures for predicting earth pressures on rigid (concrete) conduits and retaining walls of the type frequently built by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. A comprehensive literature review was made to determine the generally accepted design methods (in addition to those of the Corps of Engineers) for predicting earth pressures on rigid conduits and retaining walls. Finite-element computer studies were performed to investigate the nature of earth pressures on buried conduits. Analytical comparisons were made of the many theories available for predicting earth pressures on retaining walls. Several suggested improvements to present Corps of Engineers design methods resulted from this study. The recommended procedures were compared with earth pressure data from several Corps of Engineer projects. In general, the suggested changes resulted in more accurate predictions of earth pressures on rigid conduits and retaining walls than are calculated by the present methods. This investigation has indicated several areas of inadequate present knowledge that could warrant further field and/or analytical study.