Abstract
An investigation of the behaviour of flexible retaining structures has been carried out to assess the influence of bending of such structures on the development of horizontal earth stresses. Analyses have been developed based on considerations of both plasticity and elasticity which enable the horizontal stresses to be determined in non-dimensional form together with the associated earth pressure coefficients. It is proposed that the plasticity analysis will allow the limiting horizontal stresses to be determined while the elasticity analysis may be used to derive the relation between stress and deflection to be derived for small values of strain. (A)