Effect of Soil Arching

Arching is universal phenomena that involve transfer of pressure from the yielding part of soil to the adjoining part. The soil is said to be arch over the yielding part of support. The state of stress within the zone of arching depends upon the amount of yield. As yielding increases, arching effect is gradually reduced. However, the effect of arching is permanent in character as the shear strength property of soil .Arching effect is less if shear strength is less. Though arching phenomenon occurs in number of geotechnical engineering problems, it has not received much attention. Several researchers have attempted to estimate the active earth pressures exerted against rigid retaining walls considering arching effect in the retained soil mass. Estimation of passive earth pressure acting on a rigid retaining wall is very important in the design of many geotechnical engineering structures. Civil engineers have traditionally calculated the passive earth pressure against rigid wall using either Coulomb's or Rankine's formulation.In present study the analysis has been carried out for effect of arching on passive earth pressure on rigid retaining wall considering parabolic arch