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Estimating active earth pressure in cohesionless backfill behind rigid retaining walls has been significantly improved through the application of cutting-edge soft computing techniques in this paper. This study delves into the intricate interplay of negative wall-soil friction with load transfer mechanisms, underpinned by a comprehensive dataset obtained from a conservative solution that leverages statically admissible stress fields. Utilizing a Bayesian regularization backpropagation neural network, we construct an explicit function for active earth pressure estimation, ensuring the model's reliability through its remarkable alignment with measured values. Furthermore, feature importance analysis and advanced mathematical modeling enrich the study, providing a practical tool for retaining wall design and analysis. This tool is adept at addressing complex scenarios, including those involving negative wall-soil friction, thereby advancing the state-of-the-art in geotechnical engineering. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents rigorous plasticity solutions to the classical active and passive earth pressure problems. The primary method adopted is a conventional equation based on the soil property and three stability factors (F c , F s, and F γ), that are analogous to Terzaghi's bearing capacity factors (N c , N s , and N γ) of strip footings. The proposed method is considered as a practical yet smart approach to the determination of earth pressures and is one of the main novelties in this study. To achieve this, the finite element limit analysis (FELA) of upper and lower bounds solutions, a powerful tool in studying the behaviour of soil stability, is employed to compute the three stability factors for a wide range of soil internal friction angles, wall roughness, and surcharge pressures. In addition, analytical solutions based on statistically admissible stress fields are adopted to validate the proposed FELA solutions. The validation satisfactorily demonstrated the accuracy and reliability of the proposed solutions. It follows that the numerical results are presented in the form of tables, figures, and several examples provided to demonstrate the practical use of the three factors in estimating active and passive earth pressures with various backfill soils, wall roughness, and surcharge pressure. The study should, therefore, be of value to practitioners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]