Seismic Bearing Capacity of Strip Footings on Cohesive Soil Slopes by Using Adaptive Finite Element Limit Analysis

Abstract

Byemployingadaptivefiniteelementlimitanalysis(AFELA),theseismicbearingcapacityofstripfootingoncohesivesoilslopes areinvestigated.Toconsidertheearthquakeeffects,thepseudostaticmethodisused.Theupperandlowerboundsfortheseismic bearing capacity factor (Nce) are calculated, and the relative errors between them are found within 3% or better by adopting the adaptive mesh strategy. Based on the obtained results, design tables and charts are provided to facilitate engineers use, and the effectsoffootingposition,undrainedshearstrength,slopeangle,slopeheight,andpseudostaticaccelerationcoefficientarestudied in detail. The collapse mechanisms are also discussed, including overall slope failure and foundation failure.