Barros, P. L. A. (2006). Géotechnique 56, No.
3, 159–164
A Coulomb-type solution for active earth thrust with seepage
P. L . A . BA R RO S *
A Coulomb-type general solution for active earth pres-
sure on the vertical face of a retaining wall with a
drainage system along the soil–structure interface is pre-
sented. The soil is cohesionless and fully saturated to the
ground horizontal surface. This condition may happen
during heavy rainfall and is the most critical, when the
active pressure reaches its peak value. In order to solve
the problem, a theoretical, closed-form solution for the
water seepage through the soil is first developed. This is
used in a Coulomb-type formulation, which supposes a
plane failure surface inside the backfill when the wall
movement is enough to put the soil mass in the active
state. The formulation provides Coulomb-like coefficients
of active pressure, which solve the problem in a generic
way. Comparison with published results obtained by hand
calculation shows very good agreement. A table with
values of the coefficients of active earth pressure with
seepage calculated for selected values of the soil internal
friction angle and of the wall–soil friction angle is pre-
sented.
KEYWORDS: earth pressure; limit equilibrium methods;
retaining walls; seepage; theoretical analysis
INTRODUCTION
The evaluation of the thrust exerted by a soil mass on a
retaining structure is one of the most fundamental and
ancient problems in civil engineering. Since the work of
Coulomb (1776) this determination has been done routinely
by structural designers with basically the same assumptions,
namely plane strain conditions and plastic equilibrium or
plane failure surfaces in the soil mass. Both Coulomb’s and
Rankine’s (1857) theories are used in the design of simpler
retaining structures, such as small gravity retaining walls.
For more complex cases, such as when the backfill is
subjected to a water seepage condition, the trial wedge
method (Terzaghi, 1943), which is based on Coulomb’s
theory, is used. In this case, the flow net corresponding to
the seepage condition should be drawn, and the total force
exerted by the pore pressure along each trial failure plane
should be evaluated from the corresponding pore water head
diagrams. This tedious and cumbersome procedure, which is
described in most soil mechanics textbooks, should be done
by hand for each proposed design.
As an alternative to drawing the flow net manually, one
can use numerical methods such as finite differences to solve
the seepage problem with the aid of a computer program,
and then feed the trial wedge procedure with the results of
that numerical solution. This approach can speed up the
analysis but, again, should be done for each single case from
the beginning.
It is known that the earth thrust can be significantly
Manuscript received 10 May 2005; revised manuscript accepted 6
January 2006.
Discussion on this paper closes on 2 October 2006, for further
details see p. ii.
* Department of Geotechnics and Transportation, State University
of Campinas, Brazil.
159
Nous présentons une solution générale de type Coulomb
pour les pressions terrestre actives sur la face verticale
d’un mur de soutènement muni d’un système de drainage
le long d’une interface sol-structure. Le sol est sans
cohésion et entièrement saturé jusqu’à la surface hori-
zontale. Cette condition peut se produire pendant de
fortes pluies ; elle est critique lorsque la pression active
atteint sa valeur de pointe. Dans un premier temps, afin
de résoudre ce problème, nous développons une solution
théorique de forme fermée sur l’infiltration d’eau à
travers le sol. Ensuite, cette solution est utilisée dans une
formule de type Coulomb qui suppose une surface de
rupture plane à l’intérieur du remblai lorsque le mouve-
ment du mur est suffisant pour mettre la masse de sol en
état actif. La formulation donne les coefficients de type
Coulomb de la pression active, ce qui résout le problème
de façon générique. La comparaison montre une bonne
concordance avec les résultats publiés obtenus par calculs
manuels. Nous présentons un tableau des valeurs des
coefficients de pression terrestre active, l’infiltration étant
calculée pour des valeurs présélectionnées de l’angle de
friction interne et de l’angle de friction mur-sol.
increased when the soil is under seepage conditions, even
when a well-designed and executed drainage system is
present along the soil–wall interface. The seepage forces act
inside the soil mass in the same direction as the earth thrust,
thus increasing the lateral pressure on the wall.
The lack of an explicit general solution for the thrust
exerted by a backfill subjected to a seepage condition is due
to the lack of an expression for the solution of the corre-
sponding seepage problem. Analytical solutions for the water
flow thorough porous media are available only for a limited
number of cases with simpler domain geometries and bound-
ary conditions. To the author’s knowledge, no analytical
solution is available for the case of water seepage through a
soil mass behind a vertical retaining wall with a drainage
system along the soil–structure interface, even for the sim-
plest and most critical case (from the structural stability
point of view) of the water level at the surface of the
backfill.
This paper is devoted to obtaining a general solution for
the active earth thrust on the vertical face of a retaining
wall, as shown in Fig. 1.
The wall is provided with a drainage system along the
soil–structure interface, such that all water that arrives at
this interface is drained out. The soil is cohesionless, and is
fully saturated to the ground surface. This condition may
happen during heavy, continuous rainfall and is the most
critical one, when the active thrust reaches its peak value.
An impervious layer is located at the backfill base, such that
all the water that enters the retained soil mass should leave
it at some point along the soil/structure interface.
In order to solve the problem, an analytical closed-form
solution for the water seepage through the soil is first devel-
oped. Then this solution is used in a Coulomb-type formula-
tion, which supposes a plane failure surface inside the
backfill when the wall movement is enough to put the soil
160 ALMEIDA BARROS
Water level This problem can be solved using a Fourier series expan-
sion of h(x, z) along the vertical direction
(
)
X 1
ð2m þ 1Þ

hð x, zÞ ¼ H 1
A m ð xÞ sin ð H
zÞ
m¼0
2H
Water flow
(2)
H
where A m (x) are functions to be derived from the boundary
conditions and the Laplace equation. The boundary condi-
tion at the x ¼ 0 face requires that
Drainage


Cohesionless soil
X1
ð2m þ 1Þ
z
A m ð0Þ sin ð H
zÞ ¼ 1
(3)
m¼0
2 H H
Impervious layer
Then A m (0) can be obtained from Fourier series theory
Fig. 1. Vertical wall supporting a soil mass subjected to seepage ð1

condition ð2m þ 1Þ

A m ð0Þ ¼ 2 b sin b db (4)
0 2

mass in the active state. The formulation provides Coulomb- where b ¼ 1
z/H. This integration results in
like coefficients of active pressure, which solve the problem
in a generic way. m 8
A m ð0Þ  A m0 ¼ ð
1Þ (5)
ð2m þ 1Þ2
2

THE SEEPAGE SOLUTION On the other hand, the condition for x ! 1 requires that
The seepage problem to be solved is shown schematically lim A m ð xÞ ¼ 0 (6)
in Fig. 2. It is a steady flow condition in a domain defined x!1
by the semi-infinite strip x > 0, 0 < z < H. The soil is an
isotropic, porous, water saturated medium with coefficient of By using the series expansion in equation (2) in the
permeability k. Laplace equation (1), and imposing the boundary conditions
The problem solution consists in determining the distribu- expressed by equations (5) and (6), the solution for A m (x)
tion of the water total head h(x, z) along the flow domain. can be found:
The water level is maintained at the surface of the soil mass. ð2 mþ1Þ

In this way, along the ground surface h(x, H) ¼ H, while A m ð xÞ ¼ A m0 e
2H x
(7)
along the vertical discharge face h(0, z) ¼ z. As the
horizontal surface at z ¼ 0 is an impervious layer, which leads to the final solution
@ h(x, z) " #
j z¼0 ¼ 0 X 1
m 2 M ð H
zÞ
ð Þ
Mx
@z hð x, zÞ ¼ H 1

1 e sin
H

m¼0
M2 H
The flow continuity condition, along with the supposition
!
that Darcy’s law is valid, results in the Laplace differential X1
2
Mx Mz
equation (Harr, 1962) ¼ H 1
e cos
H (8)
m¼0
M2 H
2
= hð x, zÞ ¼ 0 (1)
where
which governs the total head h(x, z) distribution throughout
the whole domain. ð2m þ 1Þ

M¼ (9)
2
z h(x, z) 5 H Water level In the numerical evaluation of equation (8) the infinite
series can be truncated at a fairly small number of terms.
The truncation error is bounded by the error on the h(0, 0)
¼ 0 evaluation. When truncated at 100 terms, the bounding
error is less than 0.2% of H.
h(x, z) 5 z Equation (8) is a rigorous solution for the seepage pro-
blem shown in Fig. 2. This solution was used to draw the
flow net shown in Fig. 3.
The pore pressure u(x, z) at any point inside the soil mass
is given by
 
uð x, zÞ ¼ ªw hð x, zÞ
z (10)

where ªw is the unit weight of water. Also, the total water

¶h(x, z) flow that reaches the drainage system can be derived from
50
¶z
the horizontal component of the seepage velocity, v x, along
the soil/structure interface
Impervious layer x 
@ hð x, zÞ  X1
2 Mz
v x ð x, zÞj x¼0 ¼
k  ¼k cos (11)
Fig. 2. Seepage problem description @x x¼0 M H
m¼0
 A COULOMB-TYPE SOLUTION FOR ACTIVE EARTH THRUST WITH SEEPAGE 161
z Water level force, and T is the tangential force acting on the failure
plane. The pore pressure force U is the resultant of the pore
pressures acting along the failure surface. It is given by
ðH pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
U¼ uð az, zÞ 1 þ a2 dz ¼ 12ªw H 2 U ð aÞ 1 þ a2 (14)
0

where
X
1
4e
aM
U ð aÞ ¼ 1
ð a e aM
a cos M þ sin M Þ
ð 2Þ
m¼0 1 þ a M
3

(15)
The equilibrium condition for the forces acting on the soil
wedge can be expressed as
a 1
Impervious layer
x N ¼ W pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi þ Pa pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
U (16)
1 þ a2 1 þ a2
Fig. 3. Flow net through the soil mass 1 a
T ¼ fN ¼ W pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Pa pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi (17)
1 þ a2 1 þ a2
and the total water flow Q is where f ¼ tan9 is the soil coefficient of internal friction.
ðH X 1 Solving the above equations for Pa results in
2 Mz 8G pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Q¼ k cos dz ¼ 2 kH (12)
0 M H
1
af f 1 þ a2
m¼0 Pa ¼ W þU (18)
aþ f aþ f
where G ¼ 0.915966. . . is known as Catalan’s constant
(Abramowitz & Stegun, 1972). or
a
a2 f þ gf U ð aÞð1 þ a2 Þ
Pa ¼ 12ªsat H 2 (19)
EARTH THRUST ACTING ON A SMOOTH WALL aþ f
If the soil/wall interface is completely smooth, then the
earth thrust will act in the horizontal direction. When the where g ¼ ªw /ªsat  0.5. The maximum value of Pa as a
wall movement is enough to mobilise all the shear strength function of a determines the critical failure surface. This Pa
inside the soil mass (active state), then a failure surface, value is, then,
which is assumed to be planar, will form. The soil wedge
Pa ¼ 12ªsat H 2 K as (20)
defined by this failure surface is treated as a rigid body, and
the forces acting along its boundaries are shown in Fig. 4.
In Fig. 4, the wedge weight W is given by where Kas is the coefficient of active earth pressure with
seepage, and is given by
2ªsat aH
1 2
W¼ (13)
a
a2 f þ gf U ð aÞð1 þ a2 Þ
K as ¼ max (21)
where ªsat is the saturated soil unit weight, H is the wall a.0 aþ f
height, and a ¼ cotŁ defines the failure surface inclination.
Also, Pa is the active earth thrust, N is the effective normal The Kas value depends on the soil coefficient of friction f

aH
Wall movement
Water level

W
T

H
Pa
Rupture surface N

Impervious layer

Fig. 4. Forces acting on the soil wedge

162 ALMEIDA BARROS
0·80 not correct. To obtain the correct pressure distribution, one
has to suppose that, in the active state, all the soil inside the
0·70 Kas (g 5 0·4) critical wedge is at plastic equilibrium, and then evaluate the
Coefficient of active earth pressure

Kas (g 5 0·5) active thrust due to the pressures along a portion bH, b , 1
0·60 Kas (g 5 0·6) of the wall face (see Fig. 7).
Coulomb’s Ka The coefficient of active earth pressure for this partial
thrust is different from the coefficient derived in the pre-
0·50
vious section. The reason for this is the seepage condition
inside the partial thrust wedge, which is different from the
0·40 full-length wedge because of the distance to the impervious
layer at the backfill base.
0·30 In the partial thrust case, the weight and pore pressure
forces acting along the wedge faces are
0·20
W  ¼ 12ªsat ab2 H 2 (23)
ðH pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
0·10
10·0 15·0 20·0 25·0 30·0 35·0 40·0 45·0
U ¼ u½ að z
H þ bH Þ, z 1 þ a2 dz (24)
H(1
b)
Internal friction angle, ö: degrees
 pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
Fig. 5. Kas and Ka coefficients for a smooth wall ¼ 12ªw b2 H 2 U ð a, bÞ 1 þ a2

and on the unit weight ratio g. The plot in Fig. 5 shows Kas and the condition of force equilibrium leads to
values for g ¼ 0.4, 0.5 and 0.6, along with the values for 
the Coulomb’s coefficient of active earth pressure Ka ¼ a
a2 f þ gf U ð a, bÞð1 þ a2 Þ
Pa ¼ 12ªsat b2 H 2 (26)
tan2 (
/4
9/2). aþ f
It can be seen from the plots in Fig. 5 that the active
earth pressure is increased by as much as 30% because of Thus the partial active thrust force is
the seepage effect. On the other hand, the influence of the g
value is comparatively small. In this way, g can be taken as  ð bÞ
Pa ¼ 12ªsat b2 H 2 K as (27)
0.5 for practical purposes. It was observed, also, that the
inclination Ł of the critical failure surface for the case with
seepage is smaller than the inclination provided by Cou- with
lomb’s theory.
It was observed that the ratio Kas /Ka shows an almost abH
linear relation with tan9. For g ¼ 0.5 this relation can be Wall movement
written as Water level
K as  K a ð1 þ 0:44 tan 9Þ (22)
with an error smaller than 1% (to be on the safe side) in the bH
Kas value. Fig. 6 shows the variation of Kas /Ka with tan9
Rupture surface
along with the approximation given by equation (22).
W*
H T*

P a* N* U*
THE POINT OF APPLICATION OF THE EARTH THRUST
Equation (20) may seem to suggest that the active earth
pressure distribution is linear along the wall face. But this is
Impervious layer
1·50

1·45 Fig. 7. Partial thrust evaluation

g 5 0·4
g 5 0·5
1·40
g 5 0·6 Water level
Approximated
1·35

1·30
Kas/Ka

1·25
Pa
1·20
H ä
1·15

1·10

1·05

1·00
0·1 0·2 0·4 0·5 0·6 0·8 0·9 1·0
tan ö¢ Impervious layer

Fig. 6. Kas /Ka ratio as a function of tanö9 Fig. 8. Earth thrust with wall friction
 A COULOMB-TYPE SOLUTION FOR ACTIVE EARTH THRUST WITH SEEPAGE 163
 K a þ 3K as
 ð bÞ ¼ max a
a f þ gf U ð a, bÞð1 þ a Þ
2 2
K as (28) zP ¼ H (31)
a.0 aþ f 12K as

Numerical values of K as  ð bÞ show an almost linear varia- from the wall base, which is slightly below H/3. Thus the
tion with b, increasing from Coulomb’s Ka when b ! 0, to use of H/3 as the point of application of the earth thrust is a
Kas for b ¼ 1. The limiting K as  ð b ! 0Þ value is due to the safe approximation.
almost vertical direction of the flow lines near the ground Another consequence of the variation of K as  with b for
surface, which makes the pore pressure almost zero in the the partial equilibrium is that, for smaller values of b, the
upper portion of the backfill, near the wall face. critical failure plane is steeper than for greater values of b.
Based on the above observations, K as ð bÞ can be taken as This indicates that the true failure surface should be curved.
 But this curvature seems to be small, so the plane failure
K as ð bÞ  K a þ bð K as
K a Þ (29) surface hypothesis is expected to lead to results accurate
enough for practical analyses.
and then the active earth pressure distribution is given by


dPa 3bð K as
K a Þ
pa ¼ ¼ ªsat bH K a þ (30) EARTH THRUST ON A WALL WITH FRICTION
dðbH Þ 2 If the soil/wall interface can develop friction, then the
total thrust force will be inclined. This inclination is given
This leads to a parabolic earth pressure distribution dia- by the soil/wall friction angle  (see Fig. 8).
gram, whose centre of gravity is located at In this case the force equilibrium leads to

Table 1. Comparison with published results

H: m ªsat : 9: : Pa †: Pa ‡ Reference

kN/m3 deg deg kN/m kN/m

7.32 19.6 38 15 156.9 159.2 Terzaghi (1943)

6.10 20.7 30 30 148.9 152.1 Lambe & Whitman (1969)
†
From the references.
‡
Calculated with equation (33).

Table 2. Kas values for selected ö9 and ä ( g 0.5)

9: deg ¼0  ¼ 13 9  ¼ 12 9  ¼ 23 9  ¼ 9

10 0.753 0.727 0.717 0.709 0.696

11 0.731 0.705 0.695 0.686 0.674
12 0.711 0.683 0.673 0.665 0.652
13 0.691 0.663 0.652 0.644 0.632
14 0.671 0.643 0.632 0.624 0.613
15 0.652 0.623 0.613 0.605 0.594
16 0.633 0.604 0.594 0.586 0.577
17 0.615 0.586 0.576 0.569 0.560
18 0.597 0.568 0.559 0.551 0.544
19 0.580 0.551 0.541 0.535 0.529
20 0.563 0.534 0.525 0.519 0.514
21 0.546 0.518 0.510 0.504 0.500
22 0.530 0.503 0.494 0.489 0.486
23 0.514 0.487 0.479 0.475 0.474
24 0.499 0.473 0.465 0.461 0.461
25 0.484 0.458 0.451 0.447 0.449
26 0.469 0.444 0.438 0.435 0.438
27 0.455 0.431 0.425 0.422 0.427
28 0.441 0.418 0.412 0.410 0.416
29 0.428 0.405 0.400 0.398 0.406
30 0.414 0.392 0.388 0.387 0.396
31 0.401 0.380 0.376 0.376 0.387
32 0.389 0.368 0.365 0.365 0.378
33 0.376 0.357 0.354 0.355 0.369
34 0.364 0.345 0.343 0.345 0.361
35 0.352 0.335 0.333 0.335 0.353
36 0.341 0.324 0.322 0.325 0.345
37 0.329 0.314 0.313 0.316 0.337
38 0.318 0.303 0.303 0.307 0.330
39 0.306 0.294 0.294 0.298 0.323
40 0.297 0.284 0.284 0.290 0.316
41 0.287 0.275 0.276 0.281 0.310
42 0.277 0.265 0.269 0.273 0.303
43 0.267 0.256 0.258 0.265 0.297
44 0.257 0.248 0.250 0.258 0.291
45 0.248 0.239 0.242 0.250 0.286
164 ALMEIDA BARROS
q ffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
a
a2 f þ gf U ð aÞð1 þ a2 Þ active state, plane failure surface, and failure wedge treated
Pa ¼ 12ªsat H 2   1 þ f 2 (32)
a 1
ff  þ f þ f  as a rigid body. Only the case of a cohesionless soil is
treated here, although the case of a cohesive soil could, in
where f  ¼ tan is the coefficient of wall friction. In this theory, be treated as well. But, for a cohesive, presumably
way, the coefficient of active pressure Kas is given by clayey, backfill, a seepage condition like that covered here
" # qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi would be unrealistic.
a
a2 f þ gf U ð aÞð1 þ a2 Þ  2 (33) The earth pressure due to a uniform surcharge on the
K as ¼ max   1 þ f
a.0 a 1
ff  þ f þ f  surface of the backfill can be safely calculated with Cou-
lomb’s Ka for the load effect and Kas for the soil effect.
which now depends on f  , also.
In order to test the accuracy of equation (33), two
examples found in the literature were recalculated. In the
NOTATION
original texts these examples were worked by hand calcula-
A m (x) Fourier series parameter
tion. The comparison between the published results and the a, b wedge dimension ratios
results evaluated by equation (33) is shown in Table 1. f , f  coefficients of friction
Table 1 shows very good agreement between the pub- G Catalan’s constant
lished results and those calculated with the procedure pre- g unit weight ratio
sented here. It should be stressed, however, that the H wall height
published results were obtained by a lengthy and tedious hð x, zÞ total head of water
manual process, whereas the proposed method can be K a Coulomb’s coefficient of active earth pressure
applied in a much easier way: by direct evaluation of equa- K as , K as coefficients of active earth pressure with seepage
tion (32), or with the aid of pre-calculated tables or plots. k coefficient of permeability
N , N  normal forces
The value of the wall friction angle  is generally taken P a , Pa active thrust forces
as a fraction of (or even equal to) the soil internal friction p a active earth pressure
angle 9. Table 2 shows values of Kas as a function of 9, Q total water flow
calculated for  ¼ 0, 39, 29, 39 and  ¼ 9 (for g ¼
1 1 2
T , T  tangential forces
0.5), which can be used by the designer, instead of the U , U  pore pressure forces

numerical evaluation of equation (33). U, U normalized pore pressure forces
It should be pointed out that the coefficients of active u(x, z) pore pressure
earth pressure Kas given in Table 2 ought not to be used in v seepage velocity
the same way as Coulomb’s coefficient Ka to calculate the W , W  wedge weight
x, z spatial coordinates
earth pressure due to a uniform surcharge on the surface of
z P height of the active thrust force
a backfill, because this would lead to an excessively over- =2 Lapacian operator
estimated value for the active thrust. The inclusion of such a ª sat unit weight of saturated soil
load in the solution presented here is very straightforward, ª w unit weight of water
but the resulting coefficients of earth pressure would, in this  soil-wall friction angle
case, depend also on the value of this load. A much simpler 9 soil internal effective friction angle
approach, which only slightly overestimates the active thrust, Ł inclination of the rupture surface
is to use Kas for the soil effect, and Coulomb’s Ka for the
load effect. The point of application of the active thrust can
then be determined in the usual way: that is, by locating the REFERENCES
load effect at H/2. Abramowitz, M. & Stegun, I. A. (eds) (1972). Handbook of
mathematical functions with formulas, graphs, and mathematical
tables, 9th edn. New York: Dover.
CONCLUDING REMARKS Coulomb, C. A. (1776). Essai sur une application des regles des
The active earth thrust exerted by a backfill with seepage maximis et minimis à quelques problemes de statique relatifs
can be accurately and conveniently evaluated through the à l’arquiteture. Mem. Acad. Roy. Pres. Divers, Sav., Paris 5,
procedure presented here. This development was made pos- No. 7.
sible by the derivation of a closed-form solution for the Harr, M. E. (1962). Groundwater and seepage. New York:
McGraw-Hill.
seepage problem. As a side effect of this derivation, the
Lambe, T. W. & Whitman, R. V. (1969). Soil mechanics. New York:
water flow that reaches the drainage system can be easily John Wiley & Sons.
evaluated, without the need to draw a flow net. This value Rankine, W. J. M. (1857). On the stability of loose earth. Phil.
may be useful in the design of the drainage system. Trans. R. Soc., London 147, Part 1, 9–27.
The presented method uses the basic assumptions of Terzaghi, K. (1943). Theoretical soil mechanics. New York: John
Coulomb’s theory: that is, plane strain condition, soil in Wiley & Sons.