Setting earth berm before retaining structure can reduce effectively its internal force

deformation and embedded depth

and achieve good economic and environmental benefits. Based on various technical codes for excavation engineering can’t provide the design and calculation of the earth berm

and very few research this problem and the point of view is not uniform in geotechnical engineering field

the past calculation methods of earth berm is collated and analyzed firstly

and four categories are induced: (1) adding load before the retaining structure; (2) subsidiary stress of Boussinesq approximation; (3) improved elastic foundation beam method; (4) whole finite element collaborative computing

then the doubts

key points and applicable conditions in these methods are pointed out; next the mechanism of earth berm is summarized. At last

based on elastic foundation beam theory

a new simplified method to analyze earth berm is proposed

which used pressure springs and overload to simulate the back pressure effect

and by comparative calculating of setting earth berm

not setting earth berm

reinforcing earth berm in an excavation engineering

the rationality of this method is verified; and it can provide reference for design and construction of retaining engineering.