Numerical analysis of the bearing capacity of inclined loaded strip footings supported on sheet pile wall stabilized slopes

I. Bougouffa, M. Mellas, A. Mabrouki, K. Krabbenhoft and M. Baheddi

In practice, the bearing capacity of a strip footing adjacent to a slope is significantly reduced. This paper aims to control the generated failure mechanism and ameliorate the slope stability, using a sheet pile wall reinforcement technique. A two dimensional finite element limit analysis is used to examine the failure condition, through OptumG2 code. The effect of inclined loading on failure envelopes is investigated, through the average of upper and lower bound solutions. This paper focuses on the estimation of the undrained bearing capacity improvement factor for a given load inclination and slope angle. A new evaluation of the size and shape of failure envelopes is presented. Thus, a comparison between the undrained bearing capacity improvements before and after the sheet pile reinforcement is made, to study the most efficient case. The modification in failure loads are compared with those available in the literature.