Upper bound solution of earth pressure for limited soils adjacent to existing buildings considering friction energy consumption

Limited soils are widely uses in all kinds of rigid retaining wall and supporting structure engineering and the assumption of smooth wall are adopted in the existing research methods for the limited earth pressure. In this paper, the theory of upper limit analysis is introduced, and the linear sliding failure mode is established according to the engineering characteristics of finite width of soil adjacent to building (structure). The friction energy consumption of the interfaces between the wall and soil are calculated, and the earth pressure computation models are put forward respectively as active or passive limit equilibrium state, which can reflect the influence of the friction and the retaining wall back angle and the vertical load. The results show that the limit rupture angle is not constant and it varies with the calculation parameters based on the analysis of limited active earth pressure. It increases nonlinearly with the increasing computing depth, and decreases with the limited width of soil and the increasing retaining wall back angle. The active earth pressure resultant force increases nonlinearly with the external friction angle, the retaining wall back angle and the increasing overload. It is also shown that the limited active earth pressure and passive earth pressure are less than the infinite earth pressure by comparison with current research results.