Evaluation of seismic bearing capacity of strip footing on soil slope using finite element limit analysis

The scarcity of flat land in hilly areas has eventually forced geotechnical experts to utilize the sloping ground for construction purposes. The pleasant weather and attractive scenic views are the secondary reasons why there is a lot of infrastructure development taking place on hill slopes. In the last few years, a lot of attention has been given to the assessment of the bearing capacity of footing on hill slopes. However, due consideration has not been paid to the estimation of the bearing capacity of footings (width, B) on slopes, considering the consequences of earthquake shaking. In light of the foregoing, a comprehensive analysis has been conducted using a numerical tool based on the Finite Element Limit Analysis (FELA) to assess the ultimate seismic bearing capacity of footing on a c-ϕ slope and their potential failure modes, taking into account numerous parameters that control the aforementioned ones. The earthquake loading is considered by utilizing the pseudo-static approach. The influence of several parameters, specifically setback ratio (b/B), angle of internal friction of soil (ϕ), slope angle (β), horizontal seismic acceleration coefficient ( \({\alpha }_{h}\) ${\alpha }_h$ ), and unit weight of soil (γ) on the ultimate bearing capacity of footing is studied. It is noted that the setback ratio and slope angle significantly impact the seismic load-bearing capacity, while the unit weight of the soil has minimal effect on seismic-bearing capacity. This study investigated the various potential failure modes of strip foundations resting on soil slopes under seismic loading.