Bro 2004, BV Bro and the Eurocodes give guidelines for how to consider earth pressure induced by change in temperature and braking forces when designing backwalls. In this thesis those demands are investigated using PLAXIS for evaluation of the earth pressure. The results show that the model in PLAXIS corresponds quite well with the conventions in Bro 2004 and that modelling in PLAXIS gives reliable results. The demand in Bro 2004 that backwalls always shall be designed for passive earth pressure has been found to be pessimistic. In case of long bridges and short backwalls passive earth pressure is most often reached but for shorter bridge lengths in combination with longer backwalls this is almost never the case. It was also found that PLAXIS is sensitive and that the structure of the model and the choice of input are essential. A model in PLAXIS doesn’t make the design more effective but it may be a good tool for analysing the effect of the earth pressure combined with other effects such as the patterns for displacement as well as moment- and force distributions. / Bro 2004, BV Bro och Eurocode ger råd för hur jordtryck som uppkommer på grund av temperaturändring och bromskraft skall tas hänsyn till vid dimensionering av ändskärmar. I detta examensarbete undersöks dessa dimensioneringskrav med hjälp av PLAXIS för att göra en bedömning av jordtrycket. Resultaten visar att modellen i PLAXIS överensstämmer ganska väl med de konventioner som ges i Bro 2004 och att PLAXIS ger tillförlitliga resultat. Kravet att ändskärmar alltid ska dimensioneras för passivt jordtryck visade sig vara pessimistiskt. I fall med långa broar och korta ändskärmar nås ofta passivt jordtryck men för kortare broar med djupare ändskärmar är detta nästan aldrig fallet. PLAXIS visade sig vara känsligt för hur modellen byggs upp och vilka indata som ändvänds, varför dessa bör väljas försiktigt. En modell i PLAXIS medför inte en mer effektiv dimensionering men kan vara ett bra verktyg för analys av jordtryck i kombination med andra effekter så som förskjutningsmönster samt moment- och kraftdiagram.

A series of lateral load tests were performed on a full-scale pile cap with three different backfill conditions, namely: with no backfill present, with densely compacted clean sand in place, and with loosely compacted clean sand in place. In addition to being displaced under a static loading, the pile cap was subjected to low frequency, small displacement loading cycles from load actuators and higher frequency, small displacement, dynamic loading cycles from an eccentric mass shaker. The passive earth pressure from the backfill was found to significantly increase the load capacity of the pile cap. At a displacement of about 46 mm, the loosely and densely compacted backfills increased the total resistance of the pile cap otherwise without backfill by 50% and 245%, respectively. The maximum passive earth pressure for the densely compacted backfill occurred at a displacement of approximately 50 mm, which corresponds to a displacement to pile cap height ratio of 0.03. Contrastingly passive earth pressure for the loosely compacted backfill occurred at a displacement of approximately 40 mm. Under low and high frequency cyclic loadings, the stiffness of the pile cap system increased with the presence of the backfill material. The loosely compacted backfill generally provided double the stiffness of the no backfill case. The densely compacted backfill generally provided double the stiffness of the loosely compacted sand, thus quadrupling the stiffness of the pile cap relative to the case with no backfill present. Under low frequency cyclic loadings, the damping ratio of the pile cap system decreased with cap displacement and with increasing stiffness of backfill material. After about 20 mm of pile cap displacement, the average damping ratio was about 18% with the looser backfill and about 24% for the denser backfill. Under higher frequency cyclic loadings, the damping ratio of the pile cap system was quite variable and appeared to vary with frequency. Damping ratios appear to peak in the vicinity of the natural frequency of the pile cap system for each backfill condition. On the whole, damping ratios tend to range between 10 and 30%, with an average of about 20% for the range of frequencies and displacement amplitudes occurring during the tests. The similar amount of damping for different ranges of frequency suggests that dynamic loadings do not appreciably increase the apparent resistance of the pile cap relative to slowly applied cyclic loadings.