Parametric Study of Lateral Earth Pressure on Rigid Retaining Walls Using ABAQUS

A comprehensive parametric investigation is carried out to explore the effect of the Associative Flow Rule (AFR) and Non-Associative Flow Rule (NAFR) on the behaviour of a rigid retaining wall, particularly concerning the lateral earth pressure exerted on the wall. This analysis is conducted utilizing Finite Element Analysis (FEA) software ABAQUS, which provides a robust platform for studying the interactions and responses within the soil-wall system. The active and passive lateral earth pressure distributions on the wall are obtained for different angles of internal friction (ϕ) with varying dilation angles (ψ). From the analysis, it is found that there is an increasing trend of stability in the results of the distribution of active earth pressure (Pa) with the increase in the value of dilation angle in soil for the same value of ϕ. The passive earth pressure (Pp) distribution results show that the difference in the behaviour of earth pressure due to Associative Flow Rule (AFR) and Non-Associative Flow Rule (NAFR) can be observed only in the lower part of the wall height, while Associative Flow Rule (AFR) in soil with higher value of ϕ may give overestimated passive earth pressure. The earth pressure distribution for the Non-Associative Flow Rule (NAFR) with ψ=0 shows more fluctuation and unstable results, whereas ψ=0.5ϕ shows more uniform and stable pressure distributions for both passive and active cases. Thus, the study reveals that the dilation angle significantly impacts the behaviour of rigid retaining walls. Hence, a Non-Associative Flow Rule (NAFR) with an appropriate value of dilation angle should be considered in their analysis and design.