Publication

Abstract : The present investigation determines the ultimate bearing capacity of a surface strip footing resting on a reinforced embankment. The analysis is performed using the upper bound limit analysis, along with a multi-block failure mechanism. In this study, two factors named the increment factor (Ef), and the influence factor (Rf) are introduced to determine the effect of reinforcement and embankment slope on the bearing capacity, respectively. The influence of setback distance (SL), slope angle (β), cohesion (c), angle of internal friction (ϕ) of soil, and reinforcement depth (Sv) on the magnitude of Ef and Rf is explored. Soil is assumed to follow the Mohr–Coulomb failure criterion along with the associated flow rule. While determining the influence of the reinforcement on the bearing capacity, the reinforcement is assumed to be a strong one, i.e., the tensile strength is much higher than the force induced in the reinforcement. It can be conceived that the magnitude of Rf greatly depends on c, ϕ, SL, and Sv.