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What is the Water Pressure Retained by Retaining Walls?

We know that water exerts a pressure on the wall and this thrust is calculated by using the following formula

P = ½Yo H2
where H = height of water above bottom of wall, ft (m)
Yo= unit weight of water.

Unit of water is 62.4 lb/ft3 1001g/m for freshwater and 64 lb/ft3 or 1026.7 kg/m3 for saltwater.

The thrust applied by water is considered to be acting at a distance of H/3 from the bottom of the retaining wall. The pressure distribution is triangular and has the maximum pressure of 2P/H at the bottom of the wall.

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Kanwarjot Singh

Kanwarjot Singh is the founder of Civil Engineering Portal, a leading civil engineering website which has been awarded as the best online publication by CIDC. He did his BE civil from Thapar University, Patiala and has been working on this website with his team of Civil Engineers.

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2 comments on "What is the Water Pressure Retained by Retaining Walls?"

rocky says:

can you show the diagram for this.. it will be more helpful for me

jimmy says:

Please show the equation that yields, 2P/H for bottom of a wall.

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