Estimating bearing capacity of foundations is one of the key issues in geotechnical practices. Footings have to be built on slopes or near the crest of slopes in some civil engineering practices. This study investigated the combined bearing capacity behavior of strip footings near undrained soil slopes under VM loading conditions, as well as vertical bearing capacity, using the finite element analysis method. Factors, such as soil properties, slope angle, slope height, footing location from crest of slope, which affect the bearing capacity behavior of foundations, are analyzed through parameters studies. Failure load envelopes in VM load space for some cases are presented and suggestion is made for future studies of this problem.
Estimating bearing capacity of foundations has been one of the key issues in geotechnical practices. There are lots of investigations addressing this topic using analytical, empirical and numerical methods. Most of these results are usually expressed as a superposition formula in the form of the equation for strip footings, proposed by Terzaghi (1943). For example, Meyerhof (1951), Hansen (1952), and Vesic (1973) extended Terzaghi's equation by adding factors to account for different footing shape, foundation embedment and inclined loading. More recent studies were to determine these factors using limit analysis or finite element analysis methods (Hjiaj et al, 2005; Zhan et al, 2008). (Equations are shown in the paper) For eccentrically loaded strip footings, Meyerhof (1953) suggested the concept of effective width, B′ to account for the reduction of vertical bearing capacity. In this concept, line of action for concentrated force V is assumed to be center line of the effect width, which is defined as B" = B-2e, as shown in Fig.1 (a).
