Problem: The soil profile acting against the back of a retaining concrete wall is shown in the Fig. below. The ground surface behind the wall slops at an angle β=10° to the horizontal and carries a uniformly distributed load of 45 kPa. Assuming that Rankine's conditions apply:
Assume that the unit weight of the concrete is 24.5 kN/m3 and the design bearing resistance of the soil beneath the wall has been calculated to be 320 kPa. Ignore any passive resistance from the soil in front of the wall. Check the safety of the proposed design against by the traditional (gross pressure) method (assume coefficient of friction between base of wall and soil is equal to tan 35°)
