Loading of anisotropic quarter plane

Using a ̋systematic relaxation of constraints̋ technique, a planestrain solution is derived for stresses in an elastic orthotropic quarter space loaded by a normal concentrated line load at a distance a from the edge. The formulation is also specialized to the case of cross-anisotropic material behavior. Results are presented in the form of distribution of normal and shear stresses for a wide range of anisotropic material parameters. Applications include rein- forced-earth and geotextile retaining walls, vertical slopes of horizontally jointed rock, and unsupported excavations of overconsolidated anisotropic clay. An additional contribution of the paper is the generalization of the solutions available for the corresponding half space problem to cover the case of complex roots of the ̋characteristic̋ equation.