A comprehensive study of footing on c-φ soil slopes - numerical and physical modelling

Abstract

The problem of a footing being located on a slope is one which is encountered regularly and must be understood so that catastrophic failure of structures causing death or injury does not occur. This research project is split into two different but still related sections aimed at providing a greater understanding of the footing on slope problem. This project will initially undertake a numerical study to see what effect geometrical and material properties have on the bearing capacity of a footing located on a slope, with non--dimensional parameters used to highlight these effects. These parameters include dimensionless strength ratio, footing distance ratio, slope height ratio and soil internal friction angle which in this paper have been analysed more comprehensively than previously done before. FLAC will be used as the analysing software with the results obtained from these analyses are presented in design charts making the information easy to understand and use. A number of physical modelling cases will then be performed, in an attempt to validate the results produced from FLAC for a purely cohesive soil against real--world testing. A number of test samples will be set up for a range of slope specifications and tested. The results will be analysed and compared with previously derived FLAC results to see if a common result is produced between the two very different methods whilst allowing for an acceptable amount of variation. Once the physical modelling is completed it will open the door for a larger range of modelling scenarios to be attempted in both the footing on slope problem area and in other geotechnical areas such as piles and anchors