Abstract: Rankine earth pressure theory is widely used in the practical engineering design due to its simplicity. However, when it is used in predicting lateral earth pressure in deep fills, the estimated excessive earth pressures will result in a noncost effective retaining structure design. Based on the Rankine Theory, the horizontal slice method is proposed in this paper to estimate the lateral earth pressure distribution on the retaining structures. Using an internal friction angle of 15 degrees, when the friction between retaining structure and soils is neglected, the lateral earth pressure has a nonlinear distribution in the vertical direction. The approximate lateral earth pressure distributions for cohesionless and cohesive soils are provided in the paper and can be used for the practical engineering design.

Key words: Rankine Theory, Horizontal Slice Method, Active Earth Pressures, Approximate Distribution