Experimental study of active earth pressure on 3D-printed flexible retaining walls

Experimental study of active earth pressure on 3D-printed flexible retaining walls

Deep and large excavations are an inevitable trend of urban sprawl, and deformation control has piqued people’s increasing attention. Flexible retaining walls in deep excavations are significantly affected by structure-soil interaction due to their complex deformation patterns and the nonlinear distribution of earth pressure. This study aims to establish a relationship between active earth pressure and wall displacement, tracing the transition from the at-rest state to the active state. This paper is based on the research of the model test method, analyzing data to establish a function model. Two sets of model tests are performed, with flexible sheet piles fabricated using innovative 3D printing technology. By integrating a sigmoid function with Rankine’s earth pressure theory, an active earth pressure–displacement nonlinear equation based on the sigmoid function is developed to describe the evolution of active earth pressure as a function of displacement. The developed curve model successfully captures the nonlinear relationship between active earth pressure and displacement, with the nonlinearity parameter C determined as 4.853 and 4.482, respectively. Evaluation shows the Nash-Sutcliffe Efficiency is 0.91 and 0.93, the Percent Bias is−8.35 % and −7.15 %, and the Mean Relative Error is 9.35 % and 8.76 %, indicating that the model provides a strong fit to the experimental data. These results provide valuable insights for designing and optimizing excavation projects.

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