What’s on the Earth Pressure poster
The rule, 3 worked examples, and the mistake everyone makes.
- How hard soil pushes on a wall depends on whether the wall yields away from it, into…
- Ka = (1 − sin φ)/(1 + sin φ) · Kp = 1/Ka
- φ = 30°, level fill = Ka = 1/3, Kp = 3
- Wall cannot move = K₀ ≈ 1 − sin φ
- Undrained backfill = Add full hydrostatic
- Common mistake: Designing for active pressure alone → Add water, surcharge, compaction
Educational reference. Retaining design follows the governing code and is work for a qualified geotechnical engineer.
Questions about the Earth Pressure poster
- What’s on the Earth Pressure poster?
- The rule, 3 worked examples, and the mistake everyone makes. How hard soil pushes on a wall depends on whether the wall yields away from it, into…; Ka = (1 − sin φ)/(1 + sin φ) · Kp = 1/Ka; φ = 30°, level fill = Ka = 1/3, Kp = 3; Wall cannot move = K₀ ≈ 1 − sin φ; Undrained backfill = Add full hydrostatic; Common mistake: Designing for active pressure alone → Add water, surcharge, compaction. Educational reference. Retaining design follows the governing code and is work for a qualified geotechnical engineer.
- Who is the Earth Pressure poster for?
- Earth Pressure belongs to the Civil Engineering section rather than to a school year, because engineering is not something one grade owns. Anyone learning geotechnical can pin it up — a beginner, a student mid-course, or someone revising years later.
- When should you use the Earth Pressure poster?
- Retaining walls, basements, sheet piles and temporary excavation support. A wall chart earns its place by being glanceable from where the work is happening, so Earth Pressure belongs on the wall where that engineering work actually happens, within glancing distance, rather than filed away.
- What other posters go with Earth Pressure?
- Atterberg Limits, Bearing Capacity and Compaction Control sit alongside Earth Pressure in the Civil Engineering section. Printed together they make a wall rather than a single sheet, which is how a reference set actually gets used.Atterberg LimitsBearing CapacityCompaction Control
- Is the Earth Pressure poster free to download and print?
- Yes. Earth Pressure downloads as a free PDF with no account, no email and no watermark, like everything else in the Civil Engineering section. Print as many copies as you like for a home, a classroom, a library or a tutoring group; reselling the file is the only thing the licence rules out.Read the licence
- What size does the Earth Pressure poster print at?
- Earth Pressure is a vector PDF laid out for US Letter, and prints on A4 with Fit to page — the same file, no separate download. Because every mark on it is drawn rather than photographed, it stays sharp enlarged to A3, A2 or A1 at a copy shop. Colour carries emphasis only, so a greyscale print of Earth Pressure loses nothing.Printing guide
Related posters
Charts that sit alongside Earth Pressure on the same wall.
Browse every Civil Engineering poster, or start from the full catalogue.