# GATE Questions & Answers of Earth pressure theories - Rankine and Coulomb

## What is the Weightage of Earth pressure theories - Rankine and Coulomb in GATE Exam?

Total 11 Questions have been asked from Earth pressure theories - Rankine and Coulomb topic of Foundation Engineering subject in previous GATE papers. Average marks 1.45.

A rigid smooth retaining wall of height 7 m with vertical backface retains saturated clay as backfill. The saturated unit weight and undrained cohesion of the backfill are 17.2 kN/m3 and 20 kPa, respectively. The difference in the active lateral forces on the wall (in kN per meter length of wall, up to two decimal places), before and after the occurrence of tension cracks is ______

A 3 m high vertical earth retaining wall retains a dry granular backfill with angle of internal friction of 30° and unit weight of 20 kN/m3. If the wall is prevented from yielding (no movement), the total horizontal thrust (in kN per unit length) on the wall is

Consider a rigid retaining wall with partially submerged cohesionless backfill with a surcharge. Which one of the following diagrams closely represents the Rankine's active earth pressure distribution against this wall?

A vertical cut is to be made in a soil mass having cohesion $c$, angle of internal friction $\phi$ , and unit weight $\gamma$ . Considering Ka and Kp as the coefficients of active and passive earth pressures, respectively, the maximum depth of unsupported excavation is

A homogeneous gravity retaining wall supporting a cohesionless backfill is shown in the figure. The lateral active earth pressure at the bottom of the wall is 40 kPa.

The minimum weight of the wall (expressed in kN per m length) required to prevent it from overturning about its toe (Point P) is

Surcharge loading required to be placed on the horizontal backfill of a smooth retaining vertical wall so as to completely eliminate tensile crack is

A 6 m high retaining wall having a smooth vertical back face retains a layered horizontal backfill. Top 3 m thick layer of the backfill is sand having an angle of internal friction, $\phi$ =30o while the bottom layer is 3 m thick clay with cohesion, c = 20 kPa. Assume unit weight for both sand and clay as 18 kN/m3. The total active earth pressure per unit length of the wall (in kN/m) is

Two different soil types (Soil 1 and Soil 2) are used as backfill behind a retaining wall as shown in the figure, where ${\gamma }_{t}$ is total unit weight, and c' and $\mathrm\phi$ ' are effective cohesion and effective angle of shearing resistance. The resultant active earth forceper unit length (in kN/m) acting on the wall is:

A smooth rigid retaining wall moves as shown in the sketch causing the backfill material to fail. The backfill material is homogeneous and isotropic, and obeys the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion. The major principal stress is