Abstract
By employing adaptive finite element limit analysis (AFELA), the seismic bearing capacity of strip footing on cohesive soil slopes are investigated. To consider the earthquake effects, the pseudostatic method is used. The upper and lower bounds for the seismic 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 effects of footing position, undrained shear strength, slope angle, slope height, and pseudostatic acceleration coefficient are studied in detail. The collapse mechanisms are also discussed, including overall slope failure and foundation failure.
Highlights
An adaptive finite element limit analysis (AFELA) program developed by the authors is employed to examine the seismic bearing capacity of strip footings on cohesive soil slopes. e pseudostatic approach is applied to consider the earthquake loadings, which has been incorporated into the current AFELA program
Based on the AFELA program, the upper bound (UB) and lower bound (LB) results obtained by the present solution are first compared to those conducted by the previous studies. en, the effects of seismic acceleration coefficient, soil properties, and geometrical parameters on the seismic bearing capacity factor are explored
In the last two decades, the finite element limit analysis (FELA) methods are routinely used to analyze a variety of geotechnical engineering stability problems, which combine the limit theorems of classical plasticity with finite elements to give the UB and the LB on the collapse load [38]. ese techniques do not require the load-settlement curve and assumptions about the collapse mode to determine the limit load, which have been widely used in stability analysis of strip footings [39,40,41], tunnels [42,43,44,45,46], slopes [14, 47,48,49], and anchors [50, 51]
Summary
Based on the pseudostatic approach, a same horizontal seismic acceleration coefficient kh is applied to the footing and the slope [17, 36]. E vertical seismic acceleration coefficient is ignored owing to its insignificant influence on the seismic bearing capacity [36, 37]. E seismic bearing capacity of strip footings on cohesive slopes can be represented by the dimensionless seismic bearing capacity factor Nce, which is defined as. Where qu is the ultimate seismic bearing capacity. Four different values of the horizontal seismic acceleration coefficient kh, namely, 0.1, 0.2, 0.3, and 0.35, are considered.
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