Numerical and analytical study on active earth pressure against inverted T-type retaining walls rotating about the base

This paper investigates the active earth pressure of inverted T-type retaining walls under rotational mode using a slip-line method for the typical failure mechanism simulated with adaptive finite element software. Considering the influence of the heel bottom plate, the slip-line field calculation models for the inverted T-type retaining wall with long and short heels were established, respectively. The limit equilibrium method and the finite difference method were used to solve the stress state of each point. The earth pressure acting on the stem and the imaginary wall can be obtained by converting the boundary conditions. The proposed method was verified by comparison with results from the finite element method and some existing theoretical solutions. In addition, several extensive parametric studies have been conducted to investigate the effects of heel length and interface strength. The results show that increasing the heel length and interface strength is beneficial for maintaining backfill integrity and reducing earth pressure against the stem and imaginary wall.