Nonlinear passive earth pressure

The nonlinear relationship between the passive earth pressures and retaining wall deflection is approxi-mated using the general form of a hyperbolic equation.Based on the Mindlin elastic solution,an equation is inte-grated for the horizontal displacement of any point of a vertical plane when a rectangular area with the plane is subjected to uniform normal loading.The equation can compute the initial stiffness of hyperbola.The Log Spiral theory is employed in computing the ultimate passive earth pressure which is one of the parameter of hyperbola.The predicted results from the hyperbola match well the measured passive earth pressures.