Bearing Capacity of Foundations with Inclined Groundwater Seepage
Publication: International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 13, Issue 5
Abstract
The ultimate bearing capacity of strip foundations in the presence of inclined groundwater flow, considering both upward and downward flow directions, has been determined by using the lower bound finite-element limit analysis. A numerical solution has been generated for both smooth and rough footings placed on frictional soils. A correction factor (), which needs to be multiplied with the -term, has been computed to account for groundwater seepage. The variation of has been obtained as a function of the hydraulic gradient () for various inclinations of groundwater flow. For a given magnitude of , there exists a certain critical inclination of the flow for which the value of is minimized. With an upward flow, for all flow inclinations, the magnitude of always reduces with an increase in the value of . An example has also been provided to illustrate the application of the obtained results when designing foundations in the presence of groundwater seepage.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
International Journal of Geomechanics
Volume 13 • Issue 5 • October 2013
Pages: 611 - 624
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Feb 28, 2012
Accepted: Jul 6, 2012
Published online: Aug 9, 2012
Published in print: Oct 1, 2013
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