Lateral earth pressure due to backfill subject to a strip of surcharge

The evaluation of the active earth thrust of backfill, on which a surcharge strip acts, is generally made using a hybrid approach where a thrust increment due to the surcharge strip is calculated using elasticity theory and added to the thrust calculated in absence of the surcharge strip and in failure condition of the thrust wedge. This paper gives a coherent solution to the problem, based entirely on Coulomb's approach. It presents the analytical solution of the active thrust and of the position of the application point of the thrust.