Impact of Relief Shelves on Earth Pressure Reduction Under At-Rest Conditions: Physical Modeling Tests

Retaining walls play a crucial role in stabilizing slopes and providing support in geotechnical engineering. However, the lateral earth pressure exerted on these structures can significantly impact their stability and performance. This study focuses on investigating the effectiveness of relief shelves (RS) in reducing lateral earth pressure under at-rest conditions on retaining walls through a series of physical modeling tests. The experiments involved 32 small-scale physical modeling tests conducted in a rigid rectangular tank measuring 150 cm by 60 cm in area, and 70 cm in depth. The retaining wall had dimensions of 70 cm in height, 59.40 cm in width, and a thickness of 10 mm. The study examined the influence of RS configurations and loading conditions near and far from the wall. The primary innovation of this research lies in comparing inclined RS with conventional RS. The results revealed that the implementation of two RSs, positioned at the top and bottom with a maximum width of 15 cm and without a surcharge, led to a significant reduction rate of approximately 86% compared to the basic test. Moreover, inclined RS exhibited slightly better performance compared to horizontal RS.