BEARING CAPACITY OF STRIP FOUNDATIONS ON REINFORCED SLOPING GROUND

Abstract

The most important part in the field of foundation engineering is to determine the bearing capacity of the foundation to transfer self-weight of the structure and applied loads to the soil safely and economically. Sometimes, structures are built on or near soil slope. This is due to land limitation or for architectural purposes. The ultimate bearing capacity of such foundation is significantly affected by the presence of soil slope. Design of foundation under these conditions is complex and the information available in literature is limited. Numerical solutions were obtained for the case of strip foundation placed on the face of slope, with the usage of the finite element technique by employing finite element software 'PLAX1S". This 'l'hesis presents the results of numerical analysis carried out on both reinforced and unreinforced soil slopes. The parameters such as slope angle (3). angle of friction (), distance of the footing edge from the edge of slope (b) and depth of embedment - of reinforcement layer (dr1' were examined individually to determine their effect on the ultimate bearing capacity of a strip footing. The superposition method was used in the - analyses to calculate the bearing capacity factors N, N1, and N., independently. The results of the analysis show that for both reinforced and unreinforced slopes bearing capacity increases with increase in the frictional angle (), edge distance (b); and decreases with increase in the slope angle (13). It also shows that ultimate bearing capacity of the footing resting on the face of slope can be considerably improved by inclusion of a geogrid layer at appropriate level in slope fill.