SG2010
Structural
- Dec 18, 2015
- 2
I am confused about a discrepancy between the equations calculating the lateral pressure on a wall due to surcharge loading, as defined in Principles of Geotechnical Engineering (Braja M. Das) and the same equation as provided in AASHTO LRFD Bridge Design Specifications. I have attached cut sheet images below for reference.
These two equations appear to be very similar, with the exception that Das divides the pressure by height of wall, H and AASHTO divides by Pi. It could be a result of unit conversion or some obvious trig that I am misunderstanding, but it doesn't seem to make much sense to have it be dependent on H. For a large wall height of say 30', Equation 12.23 would reduce this localized pressure near the top of the wall by nearly 10x. I couldn't find this discussed before in this forum, but if anyone has any input on the utilization of either of these two equations I would appreciate it.
Thank you!
These two equations appear to be very similar, with the exception that Das divides the pressure by height of wall, H and AASHTO divides by Pi. It could be a result of unit conversion or some obvious trig that I am misunderstanding, but it doesn't seem to make much sense to have it be dependent on H. For a large wall height of say 30', Equation 12.23 would reduce this localized pressure near the top of the wall by nearly 10x. I couldn't find this discussed before in this forum, but if anyone has any input on the utilization of either of these two equations I would appreciate it.
Thank you!