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Rankine Passive Earth Pressure Calculator

Compute the passive earth pressure resultant that soil provides to resist a wall's sliding, using the Rankine model.

Computed in your browser — nothing you enter is uploaded. Figures are presented for United States against IRC 2024, and every formula is cited under regulatory standards below.

Last verified 2026-08-26 · v1.0.0

Market
Imperial · sales tax

Passive pressure resultant

9.72 kN/m

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Passive resistance is often unreliable in practice — it requires enough wall movement to mobilize, and can be lost entirely if the soil in front of the wall is later excavated or erodes. Many designers deliberately ignore or heavily discount passive resistance for this reason.

Rankine passive coefficient (Kp)
3

For the dimensions entered, expect a passive pressure resultant of 9.72 kN/m. Moderate confidence — sound arithmetic, but allow for the variation any real site introduces. Set for United States against IRC 2024. The market selector changes both the units and the code cited.

Add the equipment this sizes

This result is a specification — 9.72 kN/m — not a quantity. Put the thing it sizes into your project: how many, what you call it, and your supplier’s price.

Preliminary estimate, not certified engineering. This tool produces an indicative quantity calculation for planning purposes only — it is not a certified structural analysis, a guaranteed material takeoff, or a substitute for building department approval. Always verify measurements on-site and have a licensed contractor or structural engineer review any load-bearing, code-sensitive, or safety-critical work before purchasing materials or starting construction. Spotted an arithmetic or standards error? Report it to contact@craftquantities.com with your inputs — confirmed fixes become pinned regression tests.

[Schema Verified] Computed in alignment with American Concrete Institute (ACI 318-19) formulas and International Residential Code (IRC 2024) spatial boundaries.

Regulatory standards & verification citations

  • Rankine passive earth pressure coefficient: Kp = tan²(45° + φ/2); passive pressure resultant: Pp = 0.5 x Kp x γ x H²

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Frequently asked questions

How is passive pressure different from active pressure?
Active pressure is the soil pushing on the back of a wall as it tries to move away; passive pressure is the resistance soil provides when a wall (or footing) pushes INTO it — passive pressure is always larger than active pressure for the same soil, but requires the structure to actually move into the soil to fully develop.
Why is passive resistance often ignored in design?
It requires several percent of the wall height in movement to fully mobilize, can be disturbed by frost, erosion, utility trenching, or future excavation in front of the wall, and is inherently less certain than the soil's own weight or active pressure — conservative designs often only count a fraction of calculated passive resistance, or none at all.
Is embedment depth the same as the wall's total height?
No — it's only the depth of soil in front of the footing (below final grade on the passive side), which is typically much less than the retained soil height on the active side.