Limit Analysis of Bearing Capacity of a Rigid Strip Footing on a Soil Slope Based on the Upper Bound Theorem

The ultimate bearing capacity of a rigid strip footing on a soil slope is significant for practical engineering on the slope. Based on the upper bound theorem of kinematical limit analysis, an analytical solution to the ultimate bearing capacity is obtained and calibrated from laboratory model test results. The results obtained using the proposed method are in strong association with those calculated using classical methods. To further ascertain the validity of the theoretical method, a numerical simulation is performed to analyze specific examples. The theoretical results are fairly identical with the numerical results. All these comparisons between the analytical and the numerical or laboratory results demonstrate that the proposed method is acceptable. On this basis, the effect of parameters on the bearing capacity, such as footing width, horizontal setback distance of the footing from the edge of the slope, the dip angle of the setback segment, the dip angle of the slope face, the internal friction angle, cohesion, the unit weight of the soil, and the embedded depth of the footing, are investigated. The calculated results show that the ultimate bearing capacity decreases with the increase in the slope dip angle and the dip angle of the setback segment, but increases with increases in the other parameters.