active earth pressure induced by strip loads on a backfill

presented is a method of two-dimensional analysis of the active earth pressure due to simultaneous effect of both soil weight and surcharge of strip foundation. the study’s aim is to provide a rigorous solution to the problem in the framework of upper-bound theorem of limit analysis method in order to produce some design charts for calculating the lateral active earth pressure of backfill when loaded by a strip foundation. a kinematically admissible collapse mechanism consisting of several rigid blocks with translational movement is considered in which energy dissipation takes place along planar velocity discontinuities. comparing the lateral earth forces given by the present analysis with those of other researchers, it is shown that the results of present analysis are higher (better) than other researchers’ results. it was found that with the increase in , the proportion of the strip load (q) which is transmitted to the wall decreases. moreover, increasing the friction between soil and wall ( ) will result in the increase of effective distance ( ). finally, these results are presented in the form of dimensionless design charts relating the mechanical characteristics of the soil, strip load conditions and active earth pressure.