1 the finite difference model of the passive earth pressure in cohessionless soil

 in this paper, the passive earth pressure coefficients of the retaining wall and the locations of the failure surfaces obtained by the finite difference method and are compared with the limit equilibrium method and limit analysis method. the most influence parameters for rigid walls are soil properties, interface friction and adhesion, wall shape and the slope of backfill that are investigated in this paper. to simulate real interface between the wall and soil, the coulomb sliding method is used. in this case one sub-grid slides and/or opens relative to another sub-grid. for a retaining wall with cohesionless soil, the comparison indicates that the finite difference model can capture the main features of the passive earth pressure coefficient.