Seismic bearing capacity of surficial strip footings near cohesive slopes

Abstract

Even if most foundation failures during earthquakes occur due to liquefaction phenomenon, failures due to reduction in bearing capacity have been typically observed. In order to avoid similar foundation failures due to reduction in bearing capacity, number of performed research studies on seismic bearing capacity has increased in the course of time. Thus, the seismic bearing capacity becomes one of significant issues in geotechnical earthquake engineering. In this study, in a similar manner to the previous attempts, it is aimed to determine all factors which influence seismic bearing capacity of surficial strip footings near cohesive slopes. It is a problem typically encountered in the design of certain type structural elements’ footings (retaining walls, bridge abutments and etc.) which does not have an exact solution. Within the scope of this study, finite elements method was utilized to investigate the problem of seismic bearing capacity. Since finite elements method allows easy variation of geometry and parameters, the influence of different variables have been investigated. As a result, by evaluating more than one thousand numerical model outputs, five different factors (horizontal seismic acceleration coefficient, slope angle, footing distance from the slope edge, slope height, soil properties) which have an influence on seismic bearing capacity of surficial strip footings were detected. By compiling and interpreting the obtained results, an easily applied alternative solution method in which all factors identified to have an influence on seismic bearing capacity are taken into consideration was developed for geotechnical designers or practitioners.