ABOUT THE AUTHOR Univ.-Prof. Dr.-Ing. Achim Hettler was until 2018 head of the chair of soil mechanics and foundation engineering at the TU Dortmund. He is a member of standards committees and functions as the chairman of DIN 4085 ?Subsoil ? Calculation of earthpressure? and chairman of the working group ?Excavations?. Addionally, he is the author of the books ?Gründung von Hochbauten? (foundations of buildings) and ?Baugruben? (excavations), 2nd and 3rd editions.
Dr.-Ing. Dr.-Ing. E.h. Karl-Eugen Kurrer was editor in chief of the journals ?Stahlbau? (1996-2018) and ?Steel Construction ? Design and Research? (2008-2018). Since 1996, Kurrer has chaired the working group on the history of technology at the VDI (Association of German Engineers) in Berlin. For more than 40 years, he has carried out research on the subject of history of civil engineering and in 2018 published the book ?The History of the Theory of Structures. Searching for Equilibrium?, a standard work of the construction history.
TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1
References 2
2 The history of earth pressure theory 3
2.1 Retaining walls for fortifications 5
2.2 Earth pressure theory as an object of military engineering 9
2.2.1 In the beginning there was the inclined plane 10
2.2.2 From inclined plane to wedge theory 20
2.2.3 Charles Augustin Coulomb 23
2.2.4 A magazine for engineering officers 34
2.3 Modifications to Coulomb earth pressure theory 36
2.3.1 The trigonometrisation of earth pressure theory 36
2.3.2 The geometric way 44
2.4 The contribution of continuum mechanics 54
2.4.1 The hydrostatic earth pressure model 56
2.4.2 The new earth pressure theory 58
2.5 Earth pressure theory from 1875 to 1900 67
2.5.1 Coulomb or Rankine? 68
2.5.2 Earth pressure theory in the form of masonry arch theory 69
2.5.3 Earth pressure theory à la française 71
2.5.4 Kötter’s mathematical earth pressure theory 75
2.6 Experimental earth pressure research 78
2.6.1 The precursors of experimental earth pressure research 78
2.6.2 Earth pressure tests at the testing institute for the statics of structures at Berlin Technical University 81
2.6.3 The merry-go-round of discussions of errors 85
2.6.4 The emergence of soil mechanics 87
2.7 Earth pressure theory in the discipline-formation period of geotechnical engineering 93
16.1 Earth pressure inclination and angle of wall friction 285
16.2 Magnitude of earth pressure depending on the wall displacement 287
16.3 Earth pressure redistribution 289
16.4 Earth pressure as a favourable action 291
References 292
17 Commentary on DIN 4085:2017-08 293
17.1 Overview 293
17.2 Active earth pressure 293
17.3 Passive earth pressure 295
17.4 Earth pressure due to compaction 295
17.5 Spatial earth pressure 296
17.6 Advices on supplement DIN 4085:2018-12 296
References 297
18 Forty selected brief biographies 299
References 355
Appendix A Terms, symbols, indices 383
A1: Terms 383
A2: Symbols 384
A3: Indices 385
Appendix B Earth pressure tables 387
References 387
The subject of earth pressure is one of the oldest and most extensive chapters in soil mechanics and foundation engineering and is one of the pillars of structural engineering. First the development of earth pressure theory is comprehensively described. The descriptions range from the first approaches to the determination of earth pressure through continuum mechanical earth pressure models to the integration of earth pressure research into the disciplinary structure of geotechnics. The main part of the book comprises a selection of current calculation basics. The aim is to provide a collection of working instructions for foundation and structural engineers in construction companies, consultants and in building supervision as well as students. In order to further theoretical understanding, the essential basics of the determination of earth pressure are first presented. Then the most important processes for active and passive earth pressure and at-rest earth pressure for practical application are dealt with, with spatial effects also being taken into account. The book sets out to provide brief information about rarely encountered questions with references to further literature. In recent years, the dependency of earth pressure on displacement has been paid ever more attention. This applies not just to the passive but also to the active case. Questions are repeatedly passed to the DIN committee "calculation processes". A selection of these is dealt with in the commentary to DIN 4085, which came out in September 2018. The history of earth pressure theory is supplemented by 40 selected short biographies of scientists and practical engineers, who have taken up the subject and further developed it over the years. The book also has two appendices with terms, formula symbols and indices as well as earth pressure tables.