Static and seismic bearing capacity of shallow strip foundations on slopes

In this paper the static and seismic values of bearing capacity factors for shallow strip foundations adjacent to slopes have been evaluated using the method of characteristics, accounting, through the pseudo-static approach, for the effect of horizontal and vertical inertia forces arising in the soil and transmitted by the superstructure. Differently from most of the available studies, the effect of the inertia forces in the soil, due to the seismic wave propagation, and the effect of inertia forces acting in the superstructure, due to the structural seismic response, are dealt with independently. It was also demonstrated that the above-mentioned effects can be superimposed without significant error. Original empirical formulas and, in some cases, closed-form solutions, have been provided to calculate bearing capacity factors or suitable corrective coefficients which allow accounting for slope inclination and for horizontal and vertical seismic accelerations in the soil and in the superstructure. The proposed solutions, obtained assuming Hill's and Prandtl's failure mechanisms, have been checked against those obtained through finite-element analyses and compared with results already available in the literature.