Calculation of thrust and stop forces
Retaining walls – Active and passive earth pressure

Developed by Coulomb in 1773, this method can be used to determine the limiting thrust and abutment forces behind a screen or wall, regardless of the stresses in the soil behind the wall.

It is based on two assumptions:

• the ground breaks along a flat breaking surface passing through the foot of the screen;

• the force acting on the screen has a known direction. In other words, this means that the angle of friction δ between the screen (or wall) and the ground is known.

Having made these two assumptions, the force acting on the wall is calculated by simple considerations of static equilibrium.

The calculation...