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The bearing capacity of strip footings adjacent to the crest of unsaturated soil slopes

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Abstract

The bearing capacity of strip footings located adjacent to the crest of unsaturated soil slopes is determined using a unified numerical limit analysis method. The effect of the ground water table and the surface water infiltration is analyzed for different soils. Special attention is given to the variation of the critical distance between the footing and the crest above which the bearing capacity is no longer affected by the slope. The response surface method is utilized to study the interaction between the hydraulic state and other factors such as the slope angle, the slope height and the strength of the soil for the special case when the footing is placed just at the crest of the slope. It is shown that, the hydraulic state has a large impact on the bearing capacity, the critical footing distance and the collapse mechanism. The ground water table, the surface water infiltration, the strength of the soil and the configuration of the slope are closely related.

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The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.

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Funding

The present investigation was performed with the support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51908053) and Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 300102210209).

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  1. School of Highway, Chang’an University, Xi’an, 710064, People’s Republic of China

    Jingna Du & Fei Ye

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  1. Jingna Du
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  2. Fei Ye
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Correspondence to Fei Ye.

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Du, J., Ye, F. The bearing capacity of strip footings adjacent to the crest of unsaturated soil slopes. Environ Earth Sci 80, 664 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12665-021-09955-2

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