Numerical Solution of Different Foundation Problems: Applications of Method of Characteristics and Upper Bound Limit Analysis

There are a number of civil engineering structures, for which circular and ring footings are often employed. The bearing capacity was computed for a rough circular and ring footings by using the method of characteristics. Rapid urbanization coupled with scarcity of land force several structures to come up ever closer to each other, which may sometime cause severe damage to the structures and therefore, a need is felt to devise simplified methods to capture the effect of footing interference. The ultimate bearing capacity of two interfering strip footings was obtained by using the method of characteristics and the upper bound limit analysis. The determination of the ultimate bearing capacity of shallow to deep footings must incorporate the shearing resistance of the soil mass above the footing level otherwise the predicted failure load becomes conservative. By incorporating the shear strength of the soil mass above the footing level, it was intended to perform an analysis so as to compute the bearing capacity factors for a rough strip footing placed on a sloping ground surface at different depths under seismic condition by using the upper bound limit analysis.