the method of “Central island by bottom-up and peripheral part by top-down” has been used more and more in large deep excavation of foundation pit. In the help of this method
construction cost and project time can be saved a lot. However
there is a lack of simple and reasonable calculation method for it. Central island distribution pattern of passive earth pressure are put forward in this article which is based on and Rankine's earth pressure theory. In the condition of single soil
the pattern was described in 3 polygonal lines with the corresponding depth. The practical method for central island method of retaining structures is proposed according to the above-mentioned distribution pattern and the design method of cantilever structure from excavation engineering handbook
and a case was given. It is proved by the example that the method was simple and practical