Active and Passive Pressure
The active state occurs when a soil mass is allowed to relax or move outward to the point of reaching the limiting strength of the soil; that is, the soil is at the failure condition in extension. Thus it is the minimum lateral soil pressure that may be exerted. Conversely, the passive state occurs when a soil mass is externally forced to the limiting strength (that is, failure) of the soil in compression. It is the maximum lateral soil pressure that may be exerted. Thus active and passive pressures define the minimum and maximum possible pressures respectively that may be exerted in a horizontal plane.
Read more about this topic: Lateral Earth Pressure
Famous quotes containing the words active, passive and/or pressure:
“Things happen to us, all the time. It was like that for a century, and it is again. It’s not like here: People always do things, because you are born with it; you are brought up in this spirit, the active approach to life: “Stand up and go.” We were not. We were always passive in our lives.”
—Natasha Dudinska (b. c. 1967)
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—Mary Barnett Gilson (1877–?)
“Amid the pressure of great events, a general principle gives no help.”
—Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel (1770–1831)