Plastic Hinge

A wall designed with the purpose of keeping a level difference of the soil on its both sides is called a Retaining Wall. These supporting elements can be considered either rigid or flexible.

The rigid types are mainly those made of masonry, simple concrete or reinforced concrete. The flexible types are known as sheet pile walls. They are usually made of steel. Retaining walls can also be classified due to their primary function to hold the soil mass. They can be of gravity, cantilever, and counter fort. This is a retaining wall of the gravity type. It is made with masonry units of rocks and mortar. This wall is of the cantilever type with steel diagonal supports. It is made of precast concrete sheets. This is a gravity wall, but less rigid than the usual. It is known as gabion. It is a very popular solution because gabions are easy to install, economic, offer drainage, and can withstand ground movement better than its counterparts.

Lateral earth pressure is the pressure that soil exerts in the horizontal plane. The common applications of lateral earth pressure theory are for the design of ground engineering structures such as retaining walls, basements, tunnels, and to determine the friction on the sides of deep foundations.